West Indies selectors have opted for a broader cast of bowlers as they build towards next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. A 15-man squad will meet Nepal in Sharjah at month-end, and five of those players – Zishan Motara, Ramon Simmonds, Navin Bidaisee, Ackeem Auguste and Karima Gore – are yet to win a full West Indies cap.
Motara is a young wrist-spinner, Simmonds a lively left-arm seamer fresh from 13 wickets in CPL 2025, and Bidaisee offers leg-spin plus middle-order runs. Auguste, once a standout at Under-19 level, and Gore, who represented the USA until 2021, complete the new faces.
They will be guided by a back-room group heavy on bowling know-how. Rayon Griffith leads the trip, Ottis Gibson oversees the quicks, while former internationals Nikita Miller and Jerome Taylor join as assistants.
“The tour of Nepal is quite strategic for us,” CWI director of cricket Miles Bascombe told reporters. “We have recognised that probably over the last few years, our bowling has been a little bit of the Achilles’ heel in our white-ball team. So we have tried to bolster the support for the bowling group.”
Several senior names sit this one out. Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie, power-hitter Rovman Powell, all-rounder Romario Shepherd and the in-form Sherfane Rutherford have been rested, and Shimron Hetmyer made himself unavailable.
Head coach Daren Sammy explained the thinking. “If you look at the workload of these guys, Rovman for sure, he has been battling a wrist injury that prevented him from playing in the Pakistan series,” Sammy said. “I mean, he pushed it through this CPL. He requested a time off for him to further look at it. Motie and Shepherd, because of their workload over the last few months, we gave them a time off for that. Sherfane was also [rested] because of his workload.
“Hetmyer also requested that he was unavailable for that Nepal trip. So again, like I said, it’s not always a bed of roses. Some things we don’t see, but it’s always a challenge. I’ve said that when I call somebody and tell them, ‘you’ve been selected for some of the series’, and I have to ask to everyone, do you accept the selection to play for West Indies? It’s something that I must do because we don’t own the players. We could only select from what’s available to us. Hettie has been one of our promising, talented players from the Under-19 level. However, the scope of things that now… we could only select and hope guys accept this selection. But he’s always available for selection from our side.”
Sammy added that performances in the inaugural Breakout League – a regional talent-spotting T20 tournament – and the recent CPL were central to selection. “We’ve tried to reward form and potential,” he noted informally after the squad announcement.
West Indies leave for the UAE next week. From Sharjah they head straight to Bangladesh for six white-ball matches in October, followed by five T20Is and three ODIs in New Zealand. That three-stop schedule should clarify which of the newcomers can cope with varied conditions, while easing the load on senior players ahead of a jam-packed World Cup year.
