West Indies Recall Deonarine For Opening Test

West Indies Recall Deonarine For Opening Test

Narsingh Deonarine bowling for Guyana against Barbados at Kensington Oval. Deonarine has been recalled for the first Test against Australia.

©windiescricket.com / Randy Brooks

The West Indies have recalled Guyanese batsman Narsingh Deonarine for the first Test against Australia in Barbados, which begins on Saturday (7th April).

28-year-old Deonarine, who also bowls off-spin, last played a Test two years ago against South Africa and is part of a 13-man squad.

Deonarine's return to the squad comes after a successful run of form in the domestic first-class competition, in which he scored 582 runs in seven matches and took 20 wickets.

"Deonarine has been the leading the batsman this season in the Regional 4 Day and has demonstrated his commitment and a new level of maturity," Chairman of Selectors Clyde Butts said.

"We have not seen many big scores from the batsmen in this year’s competition, but he has played some very good innings for Guyana and also bowled very well coming onto the latter half of the tournament. We expect this same level of focus against the Aussies. He is sure to be an asset.

"We expect our batsman to perform well on their home pitches. We saw some good individual performances with the bat on the away tours late last year. We have kept faith with the players who did well in Bangladesh and India and we believe they will come good as a group. The bowling unit did very well for us all last year and we expect the same this year."

Darren Sammy will lead the team and in the absence of Dwayne Bravo due to Indian Premier League commitments, Kirk Edwards steps up as vice-captain.

"As selectors, we felt the team did a very good job in the ODIs and T20s under the leadership of Darren Sammy, and we expect them to continue to show that same kind of fight and determination in the longer format," Butts added.

"It is never easy, and we know the Aussies will come hard at us, but we believe we have selected a squad that can do the job and make the people of Caribbean proud. Also, we are in the first phase of a long year of international cricket and success would be a key in the continued building of a fighting unit."

West Indies Test squad: Darren Sammy (captain), Kirk Edwards (vice-captain), Adrian Barath, Carlton Baugh, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel Edwards, Kieran Powell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach

© Cricket World 2012