Tony Gray is questioning two selections in the West Indies T20 International squad for the upcoming five-match series in India.
On Saturday, Cricket West Indies announced two 15-man squads for One-Day International (September 27-October 3) and T20I series (October 6-17) on the subcontinent. Included in both teams was former WI Under-19 batter Jewel Andrew, while Quentin Sampson of the Guyana Amazon Warriors was named to the T20I squad.
But former West Indies fast bowler and scout Gray is taking issue with the inclusion of Andrew and Sampson in the T20 team.
“Jewel Andrew, still very young, he’s not gotten a lot of first-class cricket. In fact, when he played this year in the truncated (WI four-day) tournament, he failed dramatically. So I wouldn’t put him in the T20,” explained Gray.
Andrew scored 66 runs in four innings for the St Lucia Kings in this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) tournament. And Gray contended: “If you are looking to the future where he’s concerned, he has to play the longer version of the game. I would put him more in the One-Day game because batsmen, to me, the probability of them performing well, especially in the early stages of their career in the One-Day game is greater than in any other format because of different reasons… So when it comes to Jewel Andrew, I think he should not be playing the T20 format.”
In the case of big-hitter Sampson, Gray said the player had much to prove still.
“Obviously he has some good hard-hitting ability, but we must not be mesmerised by the aesthetically pleasing shots, we want to see total batsmanship because the T20 game has evolved and I’m not sure that I would have picked him at this point because he has a long way to go,” Gray said. “He has not shown me enough to pick him for that team.”
He noted further: “Daren Sammy has picked him for the World Cup, he didn’t play a game. And the series that preceded that, he didn’t play also, so why he’s back on the West Indies team after not a great performance at CPL level?”
No problem with ODI squad
When it comes to the ODI team though, Gray likes it. “I rather Jewel Andrew to be on that squad because it gives him a lot more time to settle down and in my opinion, the One-Day International format is where you want to breed your batsmen because of certain things,” Gray assessed.
“It’s not gonna be that testing that they have to go after the ball. They will have time to settle down and the captains would be limited where field placing is concerned and the ball is going to move around less.”
In announcing the squads, CWI said Shimron Hetmyer had been permitted an extended recovery period (following the CPL), so will miss the ODI matches but will join the squad for the T20I series.
“Obviously Hetmyer would have been nice in that ODI squad,” said Gray, adding, “that’s not a bad thing because it allows the other batsmen to have that responsibility of going out there and scoring runs against a very good opposition.”
He also described the fast-bowling department as “very strong.”
And while having no problem with Sherfane Rutherford’s presence in the squad, Gray said “he has to be a lot more consistent because I think that he has to play a key role and take the pressure off somebody like Shai Hope.”
Gray also felt former T20I skipper Rovman Powell could have been considered. “I think he could play the One-Day game still,” he said.
Full tour schedule:
1st ODI: September 27: Thiruvananthapuram
2nd ODI: September 30: Guwahati
3rd ODI: October 3: New Chandigarh
1st T20I: October 6: Lucknow
2nd T20I: October 9: Ranchi
3rd T20I: October 11: Indore
4th T20I: October 14: Hyderabad
5th T20I: October 17: Bengaluru
