Cricket West Indies on Thursday announced the 12-member squad for the first test match against Bangladesh. The two-match series will start on June 16 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. The second match of the series will be played at the Darren Sammy Stadium in St.Lucia. The 12-man squad included three uncapped players. Devon Thomas, Gudakesh Motie and Anderson Phillip will be the three uncapped Test players. Kraigg Brathwaite will continue to captain West Indies during the two-Test series, with veteran seamer Kemar Roach still a chance to be included as the 13th player.
Talking about the selections of his uncapped players, Lead selector Dr Desmond Haynes said in an official statement released by Cricket West Indies, "Devon Thomas has been knocking on the door for quite some time. He has done extremely well in our franchise cricket system and we view this as a good opportunity to give him a go."
"You would notice that Raymon Reifer is also in the squad. He is another person that has done impressively well in the four-day competition and against England (earlier this year). So again, we are giving opportunities to guys who are performing," Haynes said.
"We think Gudakesh Motie is one of those guys who is also bowling well, and we think it will be a good opportunity for him to be involved. We are looking to pick up World Test Championship points against Bangladesh which will be very important," Haynes noted.
"It would be good for us to use our home advantage to win both Test matches and collect those points," said Haynes.
West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, John Campbell, Joshua Da Silva, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Anderson Phillip, Raymon Reifer, Jayden Seales, Devon Thomas. Reserves: Tagernarine Chanderpaul and Shermon Lewis.
West Indies currently sit in sixth place on the World Test Championship table and badly need to win against Bangladesh at home and pick up some points to have any chance of featuring in next year's final.