St John’s, Antigua – Joshua Da Silva, the wicket-keeper/batsman, will captain the West Indies “A” Team for the upcoming tour of South Africa from November 21 to December 8.
They will play three four-day “Test” matches against the hosts.
Da Silva also led the “A” team to victory against Bangladesh earlier this year. Tevin Imlach, the other wicket-keeper/batsman, has been named vice-captain.
The 14-member squad includes five players with Test match experience: Da Silva; batsmen Kirk McKenzie and Tagenarine Chanderpaul; as well as fast bowlers Jayden Seales and Shermon Lewis.
It also includes three newcomers to the international level in Kevlon Anderson, the right-handed batsman; fast bowler Shamar Joseph, and allrounder Abhijai Mansingh. All three made their first-class debuts earlier this year.
Andre Coley is the Head Coach for the tour. The Assistant Coaches are Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies Test captain and Shaun Tait, the former Australia fast bowler.
Lead Selector, the Most Honorable Desmond Haynes, stated that the Selection Panel picked a balanced team to give the players more exposure in overseas conditions, similarly to the previous “A” Team tour to Bangladesh earlier this year. With the overlap between the England Men’s white-ball tour of the West Indies and this, the squad was picked with the development of players’ red-ball skills in mind.
“We had a very good “A” Team tour to Bangladesh earlier this year, when were saw a number of players improve and grow. That tour was great for development in the red ball format – we saw some excellent individual performances which led to the team’s overall success. Now with continued investment by CWI in our players, we want to see the same kind of progress on this trip to South Africa.”
Haynes added: “Da Silva did an outstanding job as captain in the ‘Tests’ in Bangladesh and he is again the captain for this tour. Anderson is a young batsman who has benefitted immensely from his time in the West Indies Academy, and we saw his quality of batsmanship in the Headley-Weekes Tri Series. Mansingh showed quality with bat and ball in the first-class competition and gets this opportunity to showcase his skills and progress. Joseph is a young fast bowler who has impressed everyone with his genuine pace, his tremendous fitness and a huge desire to gain more knowledge about the game. You can see he wants to learn and get better.”
FULL SQUAD: Joshua Da Silva (captain), Tevin Imlach (vice-captain), Kevlon Anderson, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kavem Hodge, Akeem Jordan, Shamar Joseph, Shermon Lewis, Jair McAllister, Zachary McCaskie, Kirk McKenzie, Abhijai Mansingh, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair. Team Management: Andre Coley (Head Coach), Dwain Gill (Team Manager), Jimmy Adams (Assistant Coach), Shaun Tait (Assistant Coach), Barrington Gayle (Physiotherapist), Asia Joseph (Strength & Conditioning Coach).
Match Schedule
November 21-24: vs South Africa “A” at Willowmoore Park, Benoni
November 28 to December 1: vs South Africa “A” at Buffalo Park, East London
December 5-8: vs South Africa “A” at Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein