Rampaul set to play for Windies
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Fast bowler Ravi Rampaul is expected to be fit enough to take his spot in the West Indies squad for the Australia tour, despite being ruled out of Trinidad & Tobago’s clash with Barbados last weekend through illness.
The 25-year-old was named in the final XI for the third- round WICB regional first-class match at Kensington Oval, but was sidelined by a stomach bug for the entire game and did not bowl or bat.
However, a West Indies team official said Monday that Rampaul had recovered significantly and would be taking his spot in the squad which leaves for Australia tomorrow.
Rampaul was part of a 15-man squad selected for the One-Day tour Down Under which comprises five One-Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals.
Thirteen members of that squad are expected to fly out from here to join captain Chris Gayle and vice-captain Dwayne Bravo who are already in Australia.
Both players stayed on after the three-Test tour which ended last December to campaign in the Twenty20 Big Bash eventually won by Bravo’s Victoria Bushrangers.
West Indies open their tour in Melbourne on February 7 and will play ODIs in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane before returning to Melbourne 12 days later. The two T20Is will be contested in Hobart and Sydney.
SQUAD — Chris Gayle (captain), Dwayne Bravo (vice- captain), Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Nikita Miller, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Gavin Tonge.