India vs West Indies: Shai Hope recalled for five-match T20I series

West Indies have brought in ODI skipper Shai Hope for the five-match T20I series against India. Hope’s last match in the shortest format of the game for the West Indies also came against India last year.

Hope has grown as a limited-overs cricketer in the last one year. From being considered one dimensional at one point, Hope has scored runs at a strike rate of 96.75 in ODIs this year. To highlight the stark difference, the strike rate had never touched 80 since making his debut in 2016.

Apart from Hope, who bats at No 4, fast bowler Oshane Thomas has been recalled to the T20Is after making a return to the ODI squad earlier. Shimron Hetmyer, who was also called up for the ODIs, and had missed the T20 World Cup last year, will bolster the squad.

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West Indies will be further bolstered by the presence and arrival of Nicholas Pooran, who smashed a century in the Major League Cricket final and emerged the MVP.

“The squad is selected with the next ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in mind,” lead Selector Desmond Haynes said. “We are looking at various plans as we try to find the right combinations. As we prepare; we are looking to build a unit which we believe can do the job when we host the global event in just under a year. We have some match-winners in our line-up and we will look to have the right kind of preparation, starting here in Trinidad on Thursday.

“We also have other players who could come into consideration going forward, with the Caribbean Premier League starting next month, others will come into the reckoning.”

Cricket West Indies confirmed that the 15-man squad, captain by Rovman Powell, will travel to all five games. However, the squad will be trimmed down to 13 players for selection and then XI will take the field.

The five-match T20I series begins on August 3, two days after the ODI series decider. After three matches in the Caribbean islands, the two teams will move across to Florida in the United States for the final two matches on August 12 and 13.

Squad: Rovman Powell (c), Kyle Mayers (vc), Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Obed McCoy, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Oshane Thomas.