Two West Indies players choose Champions League T20 over Bangladesh Tests
The choice for West Indies selectors regarding the squad selection for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh was fairly limited as two West Indies players, in contention to be picked, have chosen to play in the Champions League T20 instead.
The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) have refused to disclose the identity of the two players in question and said that their "decisions will not have any deleterious effect on consideration for future West Indies selection" due to the CLT20 having "an ICC approved window on the international schedule."
The 2nd and final Test of the series between West Indies and Bangladesh collides with the CLT20 qualifiers, as they both begin on September 13th. Apart from players of the Barbados Tridents who are taking part in the Champions League after having recently won the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) T20, seven other West Indian players are representing IPL franchises in the CLT20: Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons and Samuel Badree.
Sunil Narine will not be adding to his 6 Test appearances anytime soon as he once again will be plying his trade in T20 cricket in India as opposed to playing Test cricket for the West Indies. This comes in the wake of Narine preferring to play for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL final on June 1, as a result of which, he missed the training camp in preparation for the home season and was not considered for selection for any of the 3 Tests against New Zealand.
Fast bowler Jason Holder, who made his Test debut in West Indies’ last Test match against New Zealand in June, is part of the Barbados Tridents squad for the CL T20 and is, therefore, unavailable for the 2nd Test. He, has, however, been included in the squad for the 1st Test of the series.
West Indies squad: Denesh Ramdin (c), Chris Gayle, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Jermaine Blackwood, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Jason Holder, Shannon Gabriel, Sulieman Benn, Shane Shillingford.