David Warner, Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell are among six players to have opted out of Australia's tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh, while Steven Smith will miss the trips because of an elbow injury.
Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson and Marcus Stoinis are the others to make themselves unavailable for the upcoming tours because of a variety of personal reasons, following their time at the IPL and the difficult journey home when the tournament was postponed indefinitely. Allrounder Daniel Sams had previously put himself out of contention.
Wes Agar, the South Australia and Adelaide Strikers pace bowler, has earned his first international call-up as the one uncapped player in the 18-strong squad. Nathan Ellis, the Tasmania quick, and legspinner Tanveer Sangha will travel as reserves.
GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC) — Former Captain Jason Holder has urged patience with West Indies' “inexperienced” batting line-up in the wake of the heavy innings defeat against South Africa last weekend, arguing they needed time to adapt to different conditions and opponents.
The top-ranked Test all-rounder pointed out that while several of the newer players had excelled in recent series, South Africa presented a different type of challenge, to which they needed to adjust in order to excel.
Further, Holder noted that even though the experienced likes of Roston Chase, Shai Hope, and Kieran Powell had returned to the side, they also required time to become reintegrated.
“You get different oppositions that suit different styles and different persons' games,” the 29-year-old told an online media conference.
“Some persons thrive against the Bangladeshis which are more subcontinent spin bowling-friendly attacks, some persons like pace and bounce, [with] the ball coming on, and that's where you get a team coming together.
Former West Indies captain and top all-rounder Jason Holder has urged caution in the development of young fast bowler Jayden Seales.
While admitted to being delighted by the young bowler’s potential, Holder recommends caution as a necessity in ensuring he lives up to his full potential.
“I’m very excited for Jayden. It was special to see not just the way he bowled but also the way the team rallied around him,” Holder told members of the media on Tuesday.
“I was actually commenting on his first Test wicket and everyone was saying they really enjoyed how he got around it. I honestly felt like I was taking my first wicket when Jayden got his wicket,” he added.
FORMER West Indies Cricket Board (now Cricket West Indies) director Baldath Mahabir does not see a change in fortunes for the West Indies batsmen in the second Test match against the potent fast bowling attack of South Africa.
West Indies suffered a humiliating defeat by an innings and 63 runs in the opening Test at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia. The match ended on Saturday inside three days.
West Indies failed to cope with the South Africa pace attack including Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Anrich Nortje.
Head coach Phil Simmons has conceded that the lack of substantive opening partnerships is becoming a worry, following West Indies’ chastening innings and 63-run defeat to South Africa here last weekend.
The home side produced two feeble batting performances – bowled out for 97 and 162 – with Roston Chase getting their only half-century of the game.
Captain Kraigg Brathwaite and the recalled Shai Hope out on 24 in the first innings while Brathwaite and Kieran Powell – a concussion substitute for Nkrumah Bonner – managed only 12 in the second innings.
Over their last 18 Test innings, West Indies have scraped only two half-century stands, with the highest being 66 in the second Test against Bangladesh last February.
“That is one of the things we’ve been trying to work on very desperately because if you watch back a lot of times we win Test matches against the top teams, we have good opening stands,” Simmons said.
“Against England the last time [in 2019], we had good opening stands between John Campbell and Kraigg. That has not been happening and we’re working very hard on that.
