West Indies will take on Bangladesh in the 1st T20I on Saturday (July 2). The hosts beat the visitors 2-0 in the Test series and will carry that confidence in the T20 series.
Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) selection panel on Tuesday announced the West Indies men’s squad for the upcoming three-match T20 International series and the three-match One-Day International series.
Meanwhile, Dr. Haynes said this at a press conference on Zoom on Wednesday, Having a large pool makes it very easy to select players for all format. Haynes further said,
“I think that is very important and that is one of the things that the West Indies Cricket Board has done this year where we no longer have a white-ball contract or a red-ball. contract.”
He also explained that if the contracted players are suitable for the white ball or the red ball, they will be used for that.
“You now have guys who are contracted to the West Indies team so if we see he is fit for a white-ball competition, he will be selected, and if he can play in the red-ball competition, he will be selected.”
He added that he is currently working with the selection committee to create a large pool.
“I don’t think we have the numbers to go down the line to just have guys as one type of player; white-ball or red-ball. So, yes, it is a very good thing to have a big pool and I think that’s what the selectors are trying to do as well—to broaden the pool.”
Dr Haynes said the workload of fast bowlers Jayden Seales and Alzarri Joseph must be managed, as the players are becoming consistent members of the West Indies team in different formats.
Joseph and Seales both played in the recent two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
Joseph has been included in the squads for the T20 and One Day International (ODI) series against Bangladesh and Seales is in the ODI squad. The T20 series bowls off on Saturday.
They have also been busy playing franchise T20 cricket.
“It is not only Alzarri, we are very concerned about Seales as well, because what we are saying, as I mentioned earlier, I felt really bad to know that those guys had to be in Pakistan playing in those conditions and then coming home and in two days they (were) involved in a Test match (against Bangladesh).”
“I felt really bad to know that those guys had to be in Pakistan playing in those conditions and then coming home, and in two days they were involved in a Test match. They had to play back-to-back Test matches against Bangladesh after playing back-to-back Test matches against England so they were playing back-to-back-to-back.”
As well as,
“I find it hard. We’re in a situation where we’re looking for ODI points and T20 points. We are in a situation where we are looking for results to make life easier in the two big competitions which are the 50-overs World Cup and T20 World Cup.”
Alzzari, who performed exceptionally well in the Test series against Bangladesh, has also been selected for the ODI and T20 matches with them.
“But I think we’re going to have to make a decision on what we are looking for because we can’t have players playing in these conditions and in all three formats. I think we have to look very seriously about how we’re going to be resting both Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales. We got to be very careful, though, that we don’t burn them out (in) all three formats of the game, and that is my biggest concern at the moment.”