Struggling 28-year-old batter Britney Cooper has found a place in the Windies Women’s squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka. She replaces Reniece Boyce.
Cooper will be making a comeback to the squad almost after a year’s gap. She made her international debut way back in 2009 against South Africa and last played against India in Vijayawada in October 2016.
The move has surprised few people. He is the sole change to the present squad which recently beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in ODIs.
As expected, Courtney Browne, the chairman of the selection panel, had to justify Cooper’s selection. He stated that seam bowling all-rounder was chosen due to her efforts in Windies’ victorious World T20 campaign in 2016.
“Results from the ICC Women’s Championship matches against Sri Lanka women were encouraging, and the team needs to build on the momentum going into the Twenty20 International series. Britney was brought into the T20 squad, as she has shown in the past that she can be aggressive with the bat and increase the scoring rate when needed at times. She was part of our T20 World Cup-winning squad and played her part in that memorable victory,” said Browne.
Cooper was instrumental in helping Windies overcome New Zealand in the semi-final of the World T20 in Mumbai. She played a run a ball knock 61 that helped the Caribbean ladies set a respectable total of 143/6 which later proved enough to defeat White Ferns narrowly by six runs, all thanks to the spin bowling efforts.
Speaking of the ongoing tour, Windies were thoroughly dominating in their ODI campaign and scripted victories of one-sided nature effortlessly.
They will now play target to emulate similar performances in the T20 series which starts with the first T20I on October 19. The T20 leg opener will be followed by a back-to-back game on October 21 and 22. The Stanford Cricket Ground in Coolidge, Antigua will host all three games.
Windies squad: Stafanie Taylor (c), Merissa Aguilleira (wk), Britney Cooper, Shamilia Connell, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Anisa Mohammed, Chedean Nation, Akeira Peters, Shakera Selman.