Uncapped Ronsford Beaton picked to play T20s for West Indies

With the top 8 nations set to play the ICC Champions Trophy in June, West Indies are hosting Afghanistan for a 3-match T20 as well as ODI series. This series will precede to West Indies’ 5-ODI series against India which will begin in the last week of June. Afghanistan will travel to the West Indies for the first time.

Led by Carlos Brathwaite, a group of 13 men was chosen by the selectors to take on Afghanistan. Rookie fast bowler Ronsford Beaton was the only uncapped player in the squad. Beaton has represented Guyana Amazon Warriors and Trinbago Knight Riders in the CPL and has 31 wickets from 36 T20 games overall. The 24-year old fast bowler hails from Guyana.

The trio of Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons and Marlon Samuels, all of whom will come back in time from their IPL stint, found a spot in the 13-man squad. With the exception of Samuels, the other two are enjoying successful IPL campaigns playing for the same franchise Mumbai Indians, who are set to play the finals against RPS on Sunday.

The T20 series will be played at the Warner Park in St Kitts with the first game kicking off on June 2. The series will be followed by a 3-match ODI series held at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia starting on June 9. West Indies have not won a bilateral ODI series since 2014 and playing against Afghanistan gives them an opportunity to do so.

In a recent home T20 series in April, West Indies lost to Pakistan by 3-1 so they aren’t in great form leading up to this series. They are the current World Champions but Afghanistan famously beat them in the very same T20 World Cup by six runs, which happened to be both teams last T20 game against each other.

West Indies T20I squad:

Carlos Brathwaite (C), Samuel Badree, Ronsford Beaton, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton, Kesrick Williams