PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Selectors have handed shock recalls to left-hander Shimron Hetmyer and speedster Oshane Thomas for the three-match One-Day International series starting Thursday in Barbados.
The 26-year-old Hetmyer has not featured for West Indies in nearly a year and has not played a single ODI in two years while Thomas, also 26, returns to international cricket after an 18-month spell on the sidelines and nearly 3-½ years away from ODIs.
They will be part of a 15-man squad led by Shai Hope which will be missing the services of former captain Nicholas Pooran and marquee all-rounder Jason Holder.
Cricket West Indies said Monday the pair were “both unavailable for selection.”
Hetmyer made headlines last year when he was controversially dumped from the Twenty20 World Cup squad for Australia, after missing a rescheduled flight to join the team Down Under.
CWI said then selectors had “unanimously decided” to remove Hetmyer from the squad, to be replaced by Shamarh Brooks. Hetmyer averages 35 from 47 ODIs with five hundreds.
Thomas, meanwhile, fell off the wagon after bursting onto the international scene five years ago, plagued in recent times by lack of fitness and loss of form.
He has taken 27 wickets from 20 ODIs at an average of 32, with a single five-wicket haul.
“We welcome Oshane and Shimron back into the group,” said chief selector, the Most Honourable Desmond Haynes.
“Both have played at the international level before, with some success, and we believe they will fit well into the set-up.
“Oshane brings pace and is a potential wicket-taker with the new ball. Shimron’s style of batting will offer a lot especially in the middle stage of the innings and he is also a potential finisher.”
Meanwhile, CWI offered no reason for the unavailability of Pooran and Holder, both of whom were part of the failed World Cup qualifying campaign in Zimbabwe last month.
Pooran is currently in the United States where he has been playing franchise cricket for MI New York in the inaugural Major League Cricket.
Holder, a fixture for West Indies in all formats, featured in the two-Test series against the Indians which concluded here Monday with the drawn second Test.
The trio of fast bowler Jayden Seales, leg-spinner Yannic Cariah and left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie have all recovered from injury and have been included in the squad but all-rounder Keemo Paul has been ruled out with injury.
Kensington Oval will host the first two matches of the series on Thursday and Saturday before the teams return here to Trinidad for the final match at the Brian Lara Stadium on August 1.
West Indies have not beaten India in an ODI series in nearly two decades.
SQUAD – Shai Hope (captain), Rovman Powell (vice captain), Alick Athanaze, Yannic Cariah, Keacy Carty, Dominic Drakes, Shimron Hetmyer, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Jayden Seales, Romario Shepherd, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas
