BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies selectors have handed a shock recall to 35-year-old all-rounder Andre Russell in a 15-man squad announced Saturday for the five-match Twenty20 series against England starting next week.
Russell, who has continued campaigning on the global franchise circuit but has yet to represent West Indies in two years, joins another all-rounder, Sherfane Rutherford, who has been recalled four years after playing his last Twenty20 International.
Fast bowler Matthew Forde, who made his One-Day International debut here Saturday, is the only uncapped player in the squad.
“This will be the final home T20I series for the West Indies in 2023, as they prepare to be one of the two host teams for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA in June 2024,” said chief selector, the Most Honourable Desmond Haynes.
“We have selected a squad that gives us the best chance of success in that tournament. We will continue to assess in the lead-up to the competition.”
Russell is the major surprise in the squad, the Jamaican last featuring for the regional side in their disastrous campaign in the T20 World Cup two years ago in United Arab Emirates.
Then, Russell flopped with just 25 runs from five innings and three wickets from 13 overs, as West Indies lost four of their five group matches and missed out on the semi-finals.
Russell has played 67 T20 Internationals for West Indies but has just one fifty, an average of 19, and a strike-rate of 156. He has taken 39 wickets with an economy rate of just over nine.
Rutherford, meanwhile, played six T20 Internationals after making his debut in 2018 but then fell off the radar.
He returned to international cricket last week when he made his ODI debut in Antigua in the ongoing three-match series against England.
The 21-year-old Forde grabbed selectors’ attention with 11 wickets for St Lucia Kings in last September’s Caribbean Premier League and shone in the Global T20 Canada with 15 wickets for Surrey Jaguars last August.
ODI captain Shai Hope has been installed as vice-captain to Rovman Powell in the squad, which sees the return of all-rounder Jason Holder and left-hander Nicholas Poora, who both missed the ODI series.
West Indies face England in the opening T20 International on Tuesday at Kensington Oval before playing two matches in Grenada and another two at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago.
SQUAD – Rovman Powell (captain), Shai Hope (vice-captain), Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
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