ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – Hard hit­ting bats­man Shim­ron Het­my­er will make a re­turn to the West In­dies’ One Day In­ter­na­tion­al team af­ter al­most a year, hav­ing been in­clud­ed in the squad to face Eng­land at home.

The 27-year-old was the on­ly change an­nounced by Crick­et West In­dies in a 15-mem­ber squad that toured Sri Lan­ka, to face Eng­land in three ODIs be­gin­ning Thurs­day (Oc­to­ber 31) in An­tigua.

Het­my­er, who last played an ODI for the West In­dies in De­cem­ber 2023 against the same op­po­nents, re­places open­er Al­ick Athanaze.

West In­dies’ white ball head coach Daren Sam­my said he was ea­ger­ly look­ing for­ward to the up­com­ing se­ries against their archri­vals.

He said he ex­pect­ed the re­gion­al side to give a good show­ing of them­selves play­ing at home.

“Play­ing against Eng­land al­ways pro­vides a new chal­lenge and reignites a ri­val­ry that the play­ers and the peo­ple of the Caribbean are ea­ger for. Some­how, we West In­dies al­ways find a way to raise our game when we face Eng­land,” Sam­my said.

“This ri­val­ry goes back for decades, and af­ter de­feat­ing them last year at home for the first time in a long time in an ODI se­ries, we’re ready to face the chal­lenge of a strong Eng­land squad again.

“It’s al­ways spe­cial to play at home, where the lo­cal sup­port brings en­er­gy and pas­sion to every match. With our sights set on qual­i­fy­ing for the ICC Men’s World Cup in 2027, we’ve se­lect­ed a bal­anced squad that will no doubt push and com­pete with one of the best teams in the world,” he added.

West In­dies vs Eng­land CG Unit­ed ODI Se­ries Sched­ule

1st CG Unit­ed ODI: 31 Oc­to­ber 2024 - Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um, 2 pm lo­cal time

2nd CG Unit­ed ODI: 2 No­vem­ber 2024 - Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um, 9.30 am lo­cal time

3rd CG Unit­ed ODI: 6 No­vem­ber 2024 - Kens­ing­ton Oval Bar­ba­dos, 2 pm lo­cal time