WI announces 15-member ICC T20 World Cup Squad

West Indies recently announced their provisional 15-member squad during a press conference in Barbados for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup, which will be staged from June 1-29 in the Caribbean and the United States.

All World Cup provisional squads may be changed up to May 25, after which any alterations will require approval from the technical committee of the tournament.

The 20 teams have been divided into four groups of five, with the top two teams from each, progressing to the Super Eights.

West Indies will feature in Group C of the tournament alongside New Zealand, Afghanistan, Uganda and Papua New Guinea with WI being the second-highest-ranked team in their group.

They open their first two matches in the tournament against Papua on June 2 at the Guyana National Stadium, where they will also play against Uganda six days later.

The Caribbean side will complete the group stage against New Zealand on June 12 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Afghanistan five days later at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground, a venue named after their coach in his homeland of St. Lucia.

West Indies is a two-time champion of the tournament, having won in 2012 in Sri Lanka and 2016 in India under the leadership of Darren Sammy and the guidance of coaches Ottis Gibson and Phil Simmons. WI is the first nation to have won two T20 World Cup titles and is the 7th ranked ICC T20I team.

West Indies’ Alzarri Joseph prepares to bowl his next delivery during the last day of the second cricket Test match between England and West Indies at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, Monday, July 20, 2020. Associated Press / Jon Super, pool, file

Members of the squad named are: Rovman Powell as captain and Alzarri Joseph as vice captain. Other members include: Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd.

Attempts were made to encourage Sunil Narine out of retirement for this event, following which he made a clear statement of his unavailability just over a week ago.