BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Veteran Marlon Samuels has identified seamer Kesrick Williams and Jason Mohammad as players who could be key to West Indies’ future success.
Both players have emerged as crucial members of the Caribbean side in the shorter formats, with seamer Williams proving outstanding in Twenty20s and Mohammed scoring prolifically in one-dayers.
Williams, who has played only eight T20s for West Indies, recently finished with eight wickets in the just-concluded three-match series against Afghanistan with the performance coming on the heels of impressive outings against Pakistan in the Caribbean and in the United Arab Emirates.
“He’s a guy that’s hungry for the cricket and full of energy so when you have players like that they will definitely come through and he’s bowling well,” Samuels noted.
“Hopefully he can continue to stay fit and he’s doing a fantastic job for the team whenever he gets the ball. As long as he can maintain what he’s doing now because he did it against Pakistan, he did it against Afghanistan, he did it in UAE and for me, he’s moving from strength to strength. He’s shown vast improvement is one for the future.”
Mohammed, meanwhile, has been the Windies most dependable one-day batsman in recent months, with four half-centuries in six ODIs alone this year.
That form saw him thrust into the T20 format and Samuels said the transition would further help to develop his game.
“That’s the next talent they need to continue to invest in. He can bat spin as well as anybody else. Rotating of the strike and stuff like that, reading the game – he’s that type of player,” Samuels explained.
“It’s good for him to play T20, now that he’s playing in the 50 overs, for him to know how to pace his innings – when to go and when not to go and which bowler to choose and which bowler not to chose given the situation of the game.
“He’s another player that’s coming through and definitely one for the future.”