Sarwan out! ... But the Bravos return for final ODIs

CMC

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) -- Marquee batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan will take no part in the Zimbabwe series after being left out of a 14-man squad named yesterday for the final three One-Dayers, as West Indies selectors continue to carefully guard his return to international cricket.

The 29-year-old right-hander, who recently returned to competitive action following a two-month injury layoff, has been given extra time to fully recuperate before making a return to the Windies squad.

He has not played international cricket since last December after sustaining a back injury on the Test tour of Australia and subsequently aggravating the problem in the build up to the WICB regional first-class championship in January.

CMC Sports understands that the West Indies selectors are not keen on rushing Sarwan back to action, especially with crucial campaigns in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship and South Africa series around the corner.

A player with 83 Tests and 152 ODIs to his name, selectors are said to have opted to give Sarwan every opportunity to be fully fit for the bigger international engagements which are deemed more important than the current Zimbabwe series.

West Indies host the T20 Championship from April 30 to May 16 and clash with the highly ranked South African in three Tests and five ODIs immediately following.

Sarwan scored a century in a first-class match for Guyana last week paving the way for his return to the squad, but was subsequently overlooked for the first two matches in his homeland Guyana.

He practised with the squad last weekend, however, and should feature in the upcoming assignments.

Predictably, energetic all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has been included in the squad after making a full recovery from a finger injury sustained while playing in Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash in January.

Bravo, like Sarwan, has not played for West Indies since last December but slammed a century last weekend for Queen's Park in the Trinidad and Tobago domestic competition, to announce his fitness.

He is one of two changes to the squad with his younger brother Darren also recalled after being dropped following the one-off T20 International in T&T.

All-rounder Dwayne Smith has apparently paid the price for his indiscretion in the first ODI and has been dropped along with the out-of-form Andre Fletcher.

Smith can count himself unlucky after emerging from the One-Day tour of Australia with scores of 7, 43, 59 not out and 21. Scores of 12 in the T20I and four in the first ODI have led to his demise.

Wicketkeeper/batsman Denesh Ramdin, dropped from the final XI in the second ODI on Saturday, has continued to hold down his place in the squad despite his wretched recent form.

Averaging a miserable 19 from 73 ODIs, Ramdin struggled with scores of 7, 30, 15 and 3 in the recent tour Down Under before falling for a 16-ball eight in the Windies' two-run defeat to Zimbabwe last Thursday.

His last 12 ODIs have yielded a paltry 186 runs at an average of 20 and he will be under heavy scrutiny.

The Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent will hosts the final three ODIs starting with the first tomorrow, and concluding with matches on Friday and Sunday.

SQUAD -- Chris Gayle (captain), Adrian Barath, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy.

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