Nod for McLean as selectors retain ODI squad for T20 series
GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC) — Opener Natasha McLean has been added to the 14-member West Indies Women squad for the three-match Twenty20 series against Pakistan Women, which bowls off in Grenada on Thursday.
Selectors retained the entire unit from the One Day series after the hosts trounced the Pakistanis 3-1 to storm to the top of the ICC Championship table alongside superpowers Australia.
And despite their success in the 50-over format, Head Coach Vasbert Drakes believes the T20 series will still be a very competitive affair.
“I think it will be a different ball game than the ODIs,” the former West Indies all-rounder said.
“The Pakistanis play basically the same way we do. They like to come out and be aggressive, so over the short span of the T20 they should be very competitive … it should be an exciting series.”
West Indies will have the services of Vice-Captain Shakera Selman who had been part of the One Day squad but did not play a single game because of injury.
She underwent a fitness test on Sunday and was declared fit.
West Indies Women will enter the series on a high after playing superb cricket in the last three games of the four-match One Day series to come away victors.
They were led by Player-of-the-Series and Captain Stafanie Taylor, who smashed two unbeaten half-centuries in compiling 261 runs at an average of 130.
Former Captain Merissa Aguilleira, relieved of the burden of captaincy prior to the series, displayed her best form in years with two half-centuries in 177 runs at an average of 59.
SQUAD – Stafanie Taylor (captain), Shakera Selman (vice-captain), Merissa Aguilleira, Shemaine Campbelle, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper, Deandra Dottin, Afy Fletcher, Stacy-Ann King, Kycia Knight, Kyshona Knight, Hayley Matthews, Natasha McLean, Anisa Mohammed, Tremayne Smartt.
