ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – The in­ex­pe­ri­enced trio of Kevlon An­der­son, Shamar Joseph and Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh have been grant­ed their first in­ter­na­tion­al call-ups, in a 14-man West In­dies-A squad for the tour of South Africa start­ing lat­er this month.

An­der­son is a 23-year-old right-han­der, Joseph is a 23-year-old right-arm quick while Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh is a 26-year-old leg-spin­ning all-rounder. They have played on­ly 13 first class match­es com­bined.

The unit, led by Test glove­man Joshua Da Sil­va, will face South Africa-A in three four-day “Tests” from No­vem­ber 21 to De­cem­ber 8.

“Da Sil­va did an out­stand­ing job as cap­tain in the ‘Tests’ in Bangladesh and he is again the cap­tain for this tour,” chief se­lec­tor, the Most Ho­n­ourable Desmond Haynes, said in ref­er­ence to the tour of Bangladesh ear­li­er this year.

“An­der­son is a young bats­man who has ​ ben­e­fit­ted im­mense­ly from his time in the West In­dies Acad­e­my, and we saw his qual­i­ty of bats­man­ship in the Headley-Weekes Tri Se­ries.

“Mans­ingh showed qual­i­ty with bat and ball in the first-class com­pe­ti­tion and gets this op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case his skills and progress.

“Joseph is a young fast bowler who has im­pressed every­one with his gen­uine pace, his tremen­dous fit­ness and a huge de­sire to gain more knowl­edge about the game. You can see he wants to learn and get bet­ter.”

Da Sil­va is one of four cur­rent Test play­ers in the tour­ing side, with rook­ie left-hand­ed open­ers Kirk McKen­zie and Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul, along with fast bowler Jay­den Seales, al­so in­clud­ed.

McKen­zie, 23, played his on­ly Test last Ju­ly against In­dia in the Caribbean while Chan­der­paul has al­ready struck a dou­ble hun­dred in eight Tests since mak­ing his de­but last No­vem­ber.

Seales, 22, has fea­tured in ten Tests af­ter mak­ing his de­but three years ago as a teenag­er.

Sher­mon Lewis, a 28-year-old who played two Tests five years ago, has al­so been named in the squad.

Bats­man Tevin Im­lach, 26, who has played 15 first class match­es, will serve as Da Sil­va’s deputy.

“We had a very good ‘A’ Team tour to Bangladesh ear­li­er this year, when we saw a num­ber of play­ers im­prove and grow,” Haynes con­tin­ued.

“That tour was great for de­vel­op­ment in the red ball for­mat – we saw some ex­cel­lent in­di­vid­ual per­for­mances which led to the team’s over­all suc­cess.

“Now with con­tin­ued in­vest­ment by CWI in our play­ers, we want to see the same kind of progress on this trip to South Africa.”

Test head coach An­dre Co­ley will over­see the man­age­ment team, with for­mer di­rec­tor of crick­et, Jim­my Adams, serv­ing as as­sis­tant coach along with for­mer Aus­tralia fast bowler Shaun Taitt.

SQUAD – Joshua Da Sil­va (cap­tain), Tevin Im­lach (vice cap­tain), Kevlon An­der­son, Tage­nar­ine Chan­der­paul, Kavem Hodge, Akeem Jor­dan, Shamar Joseph, Sher­mon Lewis, Jair McAl­lis­ter, Zachary Mc­Cask­ie, Kirk McKen­zie, Ab­hi­jai Mans­ingh, Jay­den Seales, Kevin Sin­clair; An­dre Co­ley (head coach), Dwain Gill (team man­ag­er), Jim­my Adams (as­sis­tant coach), Shaun Tait (as­sis­tant coach)

CMC