ST JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda — West Indies has replaced wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin with Shane Dowrich for the four-Test series at home to India which starts in Antigua next Thursday.
Ramdin, a veteran of 74 Tests, said he had been dropped because the selectors did not think his batting average was good enough. He has scored 2,898 Test runs at an average of 25.87.
“New chairman says my avg isn’t Gud,” Ramdin tweeted, referring to new West Indies chairman of selectors Courtney Browne, who has replaced Clive Lloyd.
Ramdin’s comments earned a sanction from the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) for a breach of the terms of his retainer contract, the board said. Dowrich, 24, has played two Tests, against Australia in the Caribbean last summer, though he was used then as a specialist batsman, with Ramdin keeping wicket.
The 12-man squad again does not include several of the most dynamic West Indies players, such as Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Kieron Pollard, whose focus is on Twenty20. Fast bowler Jerome Taylor is also missing after becoming the latest in a long list of players to quit the Test format.
West Indies’ fortunes have diverged in recent years, with the Twenty20 team winning the world championship in 2012 and 2016, while Test performances have deteriorated sharply.
Fast bowler Jason Holder captains the team, which also includes the two batting heroes from the recent World Twenty20 triumph, Marlon Samuels and Carlos Brathwaite.
Squad: Jason Holder (captain), Kraigg Brathwaite (vice captain), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Rajendra Chandrika, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Leon Johnson and Marlon Samuels.
Broad wanted Anderson in England Test team
England should have gambled on seamer James Anderson’s fitness and included him in the squad for the first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s, paceman Stuart Broad has said.
Anderson, England’s most successful Test bowler with 454 wickets, was left out of 12-man squad for the first match of the four-Test series beginning Thursday. In his absence, Toby Roland-Jones or Jake Ball will make a Test debut at Lord’s. “I would have been tempted to have Jimmy in the 13, then you have him around working with the bowlers, pushing his fitness to maybe play Thursday,” Broad told British media.
“I saw him (last week) and he was doing OK. He was pretty certain he would be included. I don’t want to speak for him but he will be disappointed he is not in the squad.
“I think he has probably been told he has to play some cricket to be 100 per cent because the sensible thing is you do not risk him in the first (Test) and have him out of the rest, you get him right for Old Trafford (the second Test).”
The first Test at Lord’s on Thursday is likely to be a tense occasion as it marks the return of Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir to the scene of his spot-fixing scandal of 2010, for which he was given a five-year ban.
