ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — Cricket West Indies (CWI) president Dr Kishore Shallow has admitted that he would love to see T20 star Nicholas Pooran and some of the region’s best cricketers play Test cricket for the West Indies.

Speaking during an interview on WESN TV on Thursday, Dr Shallow said he believed players such as Pooran and Shai Hope could help transform the fortunes of the Test team, which languishes eighth in the ICC rankings ahead of only minnows Bangladesh, Ireland, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.

Last month, the 29-year-old Pooran was named Wisden’s Leading T20 Cricketer in the World after a sensational 2024 when he scored a record 2,331 T20 runs scored at an average of 40.

Pooran also smashed 139 sixes to eclipse Chris Gayle’s previous record of 135 sixes set in 2015.

“I’m very hopeful that eventually Nicky P [as he calls Pooran] will be back in the One-Day International set-up as well,” Shallow said. “That would be a good first step, and then the likes of Shai Hope and the others.

“I think they have all said to Daren Sammy that they would like to play Test cricket and hopefully, we could see our talent pool expand as a result of that and it will have greater depth in terms of our players to choose from.

“It would certainly help us, and I think that one of the things that has affected us in the past with our rankings is the unavailability of players from time to time, which is why Daren Sammy has embarked on this approach to have these discussions well in advance of series so we can have more commitment about players being available more consistently.”