Chris Gayle’s international career seems to be done and dusted as the left-handed batsman has not been named in any of the squads for the Afghanistan series. Gayle has taken two retirement u-turns this year, with the latest u-turn coming after the ODI series against India where he announced that he is not yet done with the game.
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But with no place for him in either of the white-ball squads, Gayle now may be forced into retirement as West Indies prepare for 2023 World Cup.
Kieron Pollard was back in the ODI squad after three years. The board had already handed him the captaincy in white-ball cricket, sacking Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite as ODI and T20I captain, respectively. Holder is a member of all the three squads while Brathwaite has been dropped from T20I squad and doesn’t feature in any other squad.
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Alzarri Joseph, who missed the bus to World Cup 2019 due to an injury during IPL, is back and has been included in all three formats. The Test squad also includes Sunil Ambris.
Hayden Walsh Jr and Brandon King are two new faces in the white-ball squad. Walsh, the former USA leg-spinner, scalped 22 wickets in recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL). He represented Barbados Tridents in the tournament.
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King is an opening batsman for Guyana Amazon Warriors. With 496 runs, he ended the league as the highest run-scorer. Both the players were expected to be rewarded for their consistency in the league.
Lendl Simmons is also back in the T20I squad. Incidentally, he wasn’t originally a part of the Caribbean Premier League and replaced Coin Munro at Kolkata Knight Riders for initial matches as the Kiwi batsman was on international duty. He later became a part of the team and scored 430 runs from 11 innings to force his comeback into T20Is.
West Indies’series against Afghanistan kicks off with a T20I on November 5. The next two T20Is will be played on November 7 and 9. A three-match ODI series will follow before the two teams will play one-off Test from November 27 to December 1. All the matches of the series will be played at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun.