St John’s, ANTIGUA – Three young players have been selected into the WINDIES white-ball squads for the tour of India. With less than a year to go before the 2019 Cricket World Cup and two years before the next World T20 in Australia, plans are being put in place to prepare the team for these important ICC global events.

ODI Squad

Chairman of the Selection Panel, Courtney Browne explained “as we continue our Cricket World Cup preparations, the upcoming tour of India provides a great opportunity to expose some of our young talent. Opener, Chandrapul Hemraj, all-rounder Fabian Allen and fast bowler Oshane Thomas will get their opportunity to showcase their skills, along with Sunil Ambris, who is returning to the fold. We will be without our stalwart, Chris Gayle for this Indian tour and the next tour against Bangladesh as he has declined selection at this time, however, he has made himself available for the selection for the visit of England to the Caribbean and the CWC in 2019.”

Andre Russell has been ruled out of all 50-over cricket due to injury and Alzarri Joseph will undergo a fitness test before leaving for India.

T20I Squad

Courtney Browne added that, “with the 2020 ICC World T20 two years away and the limited amount of T20 Internationals within the next year, the panel believes at this juncture it is time to invest in the young players that have emerged over the last two years from WINDIES A and B teams, along with 2018 CPL. The panel believes that this new group of cricketers, in addition to their cricketing skills, will have the athleticism needed to improve our fielding, which will be vital to our success. The selection of a young group two years prior to the World T20 gives the coaching staff time to help them with their skills and for the team to develop into a cohesive and competitive unit. The team will continue to retain some experienced players who will work alongside the younger group. We wish the team every success on a challenging assignment in India and, offer our congratulations to the players making their international debuts and welcome back Darren Bravo and Kieran Pollard to international cricket.”

Chief Executive Officer, Johnny Grave, confirmed the reasons for the early squad announcements saying “the team will have a camp before the start of the ODI series in Guwahati, so we had to select the squad before the start of the Super50 Cup, in order to organize flights and visas. With the CPL finishing last month, there was no reason to delay announcing the T20 squad.”

ODI Squad - India 2018

1. Jason Holder (Captain)
2. Fabian Allen
3. Sunil Ambris
4. Devendra Bishoo
5. Chanderpaul Hemraj
6. Shimron Hetmyer
7. Shai Hope
8. Alzarri Joseph
9. Evin Lewis
10. Ashley Nurse
11. Keemo Paul
12. Rovman Powell
13. Kemar Roach
14. Marlon Samuels
15. Oshane Thomas

T20I Squad to India 2018

1. Carlos Brathwaite (Captain)
2. Fabian Allen
3. Darren Bravo
4. Shimron Hetmyer
5. Evin Lewis
6. Obed McCoy
7. Ashley Nurse
8. Keemo Paul
9. Khary Pierre
10. Kieron Pollard
11. Rovman Powell
12. Denesh Ramdin
13. Andre Russell
14. Sherfane Rutherford
15. Oshane Thomas

The ODI & T20I schedule for the tour of India is:

• 1st ODI October 21 Guwahati
• 2nd ODI October 24 Visakhapatnam
• 3rd ODI October 27 Pune
• 4th ODI October 29 Mumbai
• 5th ODI November 1 Trivanthapuram
• 1st T20I November 4 Kolkata
• 2nd T20I November 6 Kanpur-Lucknow
• 3rd T20I November 11 Chennai