West Indies Include Uncapped Kyle Hope, Sunil Ambris In Squad For Remaining India ODIs

West Indies have called uncapped Kyle Hope and Sunil Ambris for the remaining three One-Day Internationals against India. The duo have replaced Jonathan Carter and Kesrick Williams in the 13-man squad for the upcoming matches. Kyle Hope, brother of West Indies’ wicketkeeper Shai Hope, bats at the top of the order and leads Trinidad & Tobago in domestic cricket while Ambris plies his trade as wicketkeeper-batsman for Windward Islands.

Hope had opened the batting for West Indies A during the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka last year and had enjoyed good outing, scoring a century and a half-century. He also had a brilliant WICB Professional Cricket League Regional 4 Day Tournament (PCL), finishing second only to Yannic Cariah on the tournament run charts. On the other hand, Ambris was the seventh highest run-scorer in that tournament with 608 runs at 43.42.

“Sunil Ambris and Kyle Hope are two very promising young batsmen who have been selected on the basis of strong performances in our competitions,” Courtney Browne, Cricket West Indies’ chairman of selectors said. “Kyle opened on our last A team one-day tour to Sri Lanka and had some very good performances. In addition, he also had a good showing opening the batting for the Trinidad & Tobago Red Force franchise in this year’s PCL competition.

“Sunil did well in our Regional Super50 One-Day tournament and also had a good showing in this year’s PCL first-class tournament for Windward Islands Volcanoes, and therefore will fit within our middle order. They will be up against a good Indian team and they have an opportunity to show their skills and contribute to a stronger team performance,” he added.

Meanwhile, West Indies will be hoping to get back to winning ways in order keep alive their slim hopes of securing a direct qualification for the next World Cup. The two-time world champions are currently ninth in ODI rankings and need to win maximum matches to secure a direct qualification.

India is currently leading the five-match series 1-0 after winning the second game by 105 runs. The opening game of the series was washed out. The next match will be played on Friday in Antigua (30 June).

West Indies squad for remaining ODIs:

Jason Holder (capt), Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Kyle Hope, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell