GROS ISLET, St Lu­cia – All-rounder Chinelle Hen­ry is fit again and was named in the West In­dies Women’s 16-mem­ber pro­vi­sion­al squad for the first two One-day In­ter­na­tion­als of their home se­ries against Ire­land Women on June 26 and 28 in St Lu­cia.

Ac­cord­ing to a Crick­et West In­dies news re­lease, Hen­ry, 27, has ful­ly re­cov­ered from the in­jury that kept her out of the West In­dies Women’s Su­per50 Cup and Twen­ty20 Blaze tour­na­ments that took place last month in St Kitts.

West In­dies Un­der-19 Women’s cap­tain and off-spin­ner Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar and her team­mate, wick­et­keep­er-bats­man Shunelle Sawh were named in the se­nior squad for the first time.

Lead women’s se­lec­tor Ann Browne-John said both play­ers have shown their po­ten­tial with the Un­der 19s and have earned their place.

“A num­ber of the younger play­ers will be tran­si­tion­ing from the short­er (Twen­ty20) for­mat to the 50-over for­mat,” she said/ “They def­i­nite­ly have the po­ten­tial, and it is im­por­tant that the pol­i­cy of iden­ti­fy­ing young play­ers and de­vel­op­ing the tal­ent pool is con­tin­ued.”

Browne-John said the se­lec­tors are al­so try­ing to en­cour­age the bats­men to use the op­por­tu­ni­ty to step up their per­for­mances.

“The ODI se­ries against Ire­land gives a good op­por­tu­ni­ty for bat­ters to fo­cus and to stay longer at the crease and build an in­nings,” she said.

“The squad shows a great bal­ance of bat­ting cou­pled with a va­ri­ety of bowl­ing styles, which is some­thing that has been lack­ing in the re­cent past.

“Vic­to­ry will pro­vide valu­able points as the team at­tempts to move up in the rank­ings and qual­i­fy for the ICC Women’s Crick­et World Cup.”

Hay­ley Matthews will con­tin­ue to lead the side with wick­et­keep­er-bats­man She­maine Camp­belle be­ing her deputy.

A fi­nal squad of 13 will be named be­fore each of the match­es, which are the team’s on­ly home fix­ture for the year.

The three ODIs on June 26, 28, and Ju­ly 1 at the Daren Sam­my Crick­et Ground are the team’s third fix­ture in the ICC Women’s Cham­pi­onship, where they are push­ing to earn points to achieve a top five po­si­tion to qual­i­fy di­rect­ly to the Women’s CWC 2025.

West In­dies and Ire­land are the two bot­tom teams af­ter play­ing six match­es each so far, with the Caribbean side hav­ing won once and the vis­i­tors yet to open their ac­count.

The three T20Is will all be played on Ju­ly 4, 6, and 8 at the same venue.

Windies Squad:

Hay­ley Matthews (cap­tain), She­maine Camp­belle (vice-cap­tain), Aaliyah Al­leyne, Shamil­ia Con­nell, Chinelle Hen­ry, Afy Fletch­er, Cher­ry-Ann Fras­er, Shabi­ka Gajn­abi, Zai­da James, Djen­a­ba Joseph, Qiana Joseph, Ash­mi­ni Mu­nis­ar, Kar­ish­ma Ramharack, Shunelle Sawh, Stafanie Tay­lor, Rasha­da Williams.

(CMC)