Gayle, Russell, Pollard named in West Indies squad for T20I collection vs South Africa, Australia and Pakistan

With T20 World Cup not far away, all-rounder Andre Russell is again within the West Indies T20I squad for the primary time since March 2020. The Cricket West Indies choice panel on Tuesday named a strong 18-man squad for the three back-to-back five-match T20I collection in opposition to South Africa, Australia and Pakistan.Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas and Hayden Walsh Jr. return alongside the vast majority of the squad who featured within the 2-1 T20I Series victory in opposition to Sri Lanka in March. Kieron Pollard, who led the staff to the ODI and T20I collection win in opposition to Sri Lanka, will proceed to captain the staff. Nicholas Pooran will play the function of Pollard’s deputy. It has been learnt that Suni Narine continues to be not able to return to worldwide cricket.CWI’s Lead Selector, Roger Harper, defined the considering behind naming the squad and stated, “The Provisional T20I Squad was put together with all T20I Home Series Matches against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in mind. This gives us the opportunity to continue to build towards the upcoming World Cup and to determine our best squad and our ideal eleven.”West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons, expressed assured going into the summer season and stated that he was ooking ahead to the upcoming World Cup in India.“These upcoming T20Is are essential by way of our preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup. We have assembled a really strong squad — with skilled world-class match-winners and a few thrilling younger gifted gamers, able to explode onto the worldwide stage and do nice issues for West Indies cricket.”We are at that point where we have identified those who we will look to be the core of the squad to defend our World Cup title, so we want to make sure the upcoming matches create that environment — the way we train, the way we plan, the way we execute and the chemistry within the group. We won five years ago, so the next few weeks and months will be major steppingstones on the road towards defending our title and being World Champions for a third time,” he stated.West Indies T20I squad: Kieron Pollard (capt), Nicholas Pooran (wk), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh JnrT20I MATCH SCHEDULE:West Indies vs South AfricaJune 26: 1st T20I, Grenada National Cricket StadiumJune 27: 2nd T20I, Grenada National Cricket StadiumJune 29: third T20I, Grenada National Cricket StadiumJuly 1: 4th T20I, Grenada National Cricket StadiumJuly 3: fifth T20I, Grenada National Cricket StadiumWest Indies vs AustraliaJuly 9: 1st T20I, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. LuciaJuly 10: 2nd T20I, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. LuciaJuly 12: third T20I, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. LuciaJuly 14: 4th T20I, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. LuciaJuly 16: fifth T20I, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. LuciaWest Indies vs PakistanJuly 27: 1st T20I, Kensington Oval, BarbadosJuly 28: 2nd T20I, Kensington Oval, BarbadosJuly 31: third T20I, Guyana National StadiumAugust 1: 4th T20I, Guyana National StadiumAugust 3: fifth T20I, Guyana National Stadium