Cricket West Indies have named Brandon King as the intern captain of the West Indies squad for South Africa T20Is scheduled to play between May 23 and 26.
Brandon King’s appointment comes on the back of Rovman Powell’s unavailability for the series. Rovman and several other West Indies players are currently residing at India to play the Indian Premier League 2024.
ECB have requested their players to return home to feature in the Pakistan T20I series which was the sole preparation series scheduled to play ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024 for England.
On the other hand, as a hosting nation, West Indies Cricket let their players to complete their IPL stint before returning home for the ICC event.
Powell and Shimron Hetmyer are a part of Rajasthan Royals whereas Andre Rusell and Sherfane Rutherford are present in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad. With Royal Challengers Bangalore also qualifying for the playoffs, Alzarri Joseph will be unavailable as well.
Though Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran returned for home they were rested for the South Africa T20 series. CWI has also confirmed that Joseph and Rutherford will be later added to the squad in case RCB and KKR do not reach the final.
“We have not played together as a team since the Australia series, but we just completed a very high-intensity training camp in Antigua,” White Ball Head Coach Daren Sammy said.
“Now we have the chance to integrate some of our players returning from the IPL and build some momentum as a group going into the World Cup.”
Squad: Brandon King (C), Roston Chase, Alick Athanaze, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Mathew Forde, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Obed McCoy, Gudakesh Motie, Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh
The South Africa tour of West Indies 2024 consists of 6 T20Is and 2 Tests with a 4-day warm-up game. The first three T20I will be played between May 23 and 26 and the remaining three will be played between August 23 and 27.
Following the first three T20I, the team will feature in the T20 World Cup 2024. Post the ICC event, a couple of Tests will be played while the remaining three T20I will be played between August 23 and 27.
