Morton And Dwayne Smith Handed Recalls

Morton And Dwayne Smith Handed Recalls

Dwayne Smith has been recalled by the West Indies.

©Action Images / Andrew Boyers

The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has handed recalls to batsman Runako Morton and all-rounder Dwayne Smith for their upcoming One-Day International and Twenty20 International series in Australia.

Morton last played against India in July before he was one of a number of players left out during the contract crisis but was not in Australia for the Test series when the players returned en masse but Smith has been absent since July 2007, during which time he had signed to play for Sussex on a Kolpak contract.

His recall, along with the emergence of Gavin Tonge and Travis Dowlin as genuine international-class players gives the West Indies plenty of strength in depth, which they need given that Daren Bravo, Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Jerome Taylor are all unavailable due to injury.

"We believe the team will do very well in Australia in the 50-over format as well as the T20 Internationals," chair of selectors Clyde Butts said in a statement.

"We have faith in the players and we believe the team can beat Australia. Before we went to Australia for the Test matches, the team was not given a chance by many people, but we saw how well they bounced backed (sic) after the first Test and challenged the Aussies in Adelaide and Perth."

Smith, Kieron Pollard, captain Chris Gayle and vice-captain Dwayne Bravo have all been playing in the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash in Australia, while Pollard and Bravo are set to feature in the latter stages of the competition with South Australia and Victoria respectively.

The five-match ODI series begins on 7th February in Melbourne while the two Twenty20s, in Hobart and Sydney, are on 21st and 23rd February.

West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo (vice-captain), Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Nikita Miller, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Gavin Tonge

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