Caribbean Times 3rd Issue

16 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Wednesday 22nd February 2017
Kieran Powell back in WI squad
Opening batsman Kieran
Powell, who last played
an international game in
June 2014, has been recalled
to the West Indies side for
the upcoming three-match
ODI series against England,
which starts from March 3.
Powell’s inclusion follows
the batsman’s prolific run in
West Indies’ domestic List
A competition, the Regional
Super50, where he emerged
as the highest run-getter,
scoring three centuries and
two fifties.
The squad does not feature
left-arm spinner Sulieman
Benn, wicketkeeper-batsman
Johnson Charles
and offspinner Sunil Narine,
who were part of the team in
West Indies’ previous ODI
assignment, the tri-series
against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe
in Zimbabwe.
Alzarri Joseph, who was
first picked and later withdrawn
from the tri-series,
has also found a place in the
squad.
If he takes the field on
March 3, Kieran Powell will
play his first match in the format
after nearly three years,
having played England in his
previous ODI appearance in
March 2014. Powell played
only one more international
match - a Test against New
Zealand in June that year -
before he was dropped from
the squad.
The batsman took a
self-imposed break from the
game, and in January 2015,
issued a statement saying
At one stage of the recent Regional Super50 competition, Kieran Powell had scores of 105, 135, 52,
106 and 80 in successive games.
that mixed signals from West
Indies cricket authorities had
left him “deflated and confused”
as he attempted to return
to international cricket.
This resulted in his decision
to step away from the game
for some time and in January
2016, he tried his hand at
baseball, without much success.
He finally made a return
to first-class cricket in March
2016, featuring for Leeward
Islands in the Regional
4-day tournament. Between
his exclusion from West Indies
sides and his return for
Leeward Islands, Powell
played four first-class matches
- for Tamil Union Cricket
and Athletic Club in Sri
Lanka’s first-class Premier
League Tournament in February-March
2015.
While he played only two
matches in last season’s Regional
4-day, he has had a
longer run with the team in
the 2016-17 domestic season,
and has enjoyed better
returns. Until December
- when the first half of the
first-class tournament concluded
- Powell had scored
264 runs with two fifties in
five matches. In the Regional
Super50 competition that
followed, his tally of 513
runs from nine matches at an
average of 64.12 propelled
Leeward into the semi-finals,
where they lost to Barbados.
At one stage, Powell had five
successive fifty-plus scores,
raking up 105, 135, 52, 106
and 80.
The squad also does not
feature allrounder Marlon
Samuels, who was cleared to
bowl in international cricket
by the ICC last week. Samuels
last played an ODI in October
last year before being
dropped from the squad for
the tri-series in Zimbabwe.
The 15-man squad will
have a training camp in Antigua
this week, with the
team’s new coach Stuart Law.
The board also announced
the WICB President’s XI
team,which will play a practice
match against England
on February 27 in St Kitts.
The first two ODIs will be
played in Antigua on March
3 and 5, followed by the final
match in Barbados on March
9.