T&T Red Force go in­to the fifth round match of the West In­dies Cham­pi­onship against Bar­ba­dos Pride Wednes­day at Kens­ing­ton Oval, Bar­ba­dos still un­beat­en.

Head coach Rayad Em­rit is con­fi­dent they will main­tain the in­ten­si­ty against a team strength­ened by the re­turn of el­e­gant and con­sis­tent bats­man Shai Hope who is set to play his first Four-Day match in al­most two years.

“Shai Hope is in the squad, yes, he re­turns to the Bar­ba­dos team but he hasn't been play­ing Four Day crick­et for a while so ob­vi­ous­ly it's some­thing new to him,” Em­rit ex­plained. “We're not wor­ry­ing too much about Hope. We are wor­ry­ing about what we can con­trol and what we've been do­ing well.”

The Red Force has made one change to the team, re­call­ing Cen­tral Sports open­er Kamil Pooran to the squad to re­place the in­jured Clarke Road Unit­ed open­er Vikash Mo­han.

Pooran scored 11 and 34 for Com­bined Cam­pus­es and Col­leges (CCC). T&T has the first pri­or­i­ty of the Cen­tral Sports play­er and has ex­er­cised their right to re­call him as he has been reg­is­tered by the Red Force to play in the tour­na­ment.

CCC was grant­ed per­mis­sion to use reg­is­tered play­ers who have not been se­lect­ed by ter­ri­to­r­i­al teams so that play­ers can give the crick­eters an­oth­er op­tion in­stead of re­main­ing in­ac­tive. Ja­maica’s Ojay Shields and Bar­ba­dos’ Chemar Hold­er have al­so played for both CCC and their coun­tries this year.

The Red Force record­ed wins against CCC, Wind­ward Is­lands Vol­ca­noes and West In­dies Acad­e­my and a draw against Lee­ward Is­lands Hur­ri­canes to re­main un­beat­en but the match in Bridgetown will be the tough­est to date.

“We want to con­tin­ue to do what we can do well and im­prove what we haven't been do­ing well,” Em­rit said. “I think the mood in the camp is very good. The guys are up for the chal­lenge.”

The for­mer West In­dies all­rounder added “We're not go­ing to just lay back and take Bar­ba­dos light­ly. They are un­beat­en at home so far and we know it's go­ing to be a tough chal­lenge. We're in for a tough chal­lenge and we're up for it.”

Squads

T&T Red Force: Joshua Da Sil­va (cap­tain), Kamil Pooran, Cephas Coop­er, Tion Web­ster, Amir Jan­goo, Ja­son Mo­hammed , Yan­nic Cari­ah, Joshua James, Khary Pierre, An­der­son Phillip, Bryan Charles, Jay­den Seales and Jyd Goolie.

Bar­ba­dos Pride: Kraigg Brath­waite (cap­tain), Zachary Mc­Cask­ie, Shai Hope, Jonathan Drakes, Ros­ton Chase, Ja­son Hold­er, Leniko Bouch­er, Ke­mar Roach, Jomel War­ri­can, Matthew Forde, Ra­mon Sim­mons and Kevin Wick­ham.

To­day's Round Five match­es

At Kens­ing­ton Oval Bar­ba­dos: Trinidad and To­ba­go vs Bar­ba­dos

At Prov­i­dence, Guyana: Guyana vs Wind­ward Is­lands

At North Sound, An­tigua: Lee­ward Is­lands vs Com­bined Col­leges and Cam­pus­es

At Coolidge, An­tigua: West In­dies Acad­e­my vs Ja­maica