Brathwaithe to Captain WI against India in Florida

Allrounder Carlos Brathwaite, who has played only eight T20Is, has been appointed the new West Indies T20 captain for the two matches against India later this month in Florida. Darren Sammy, who led them to two World T20 titles, was sacked and also left out of the 13-man squad. Sammy had recently posted a video on his Facebook page saying the chairman of selectors had called him about the exclusion from the squad. A WICB release said: “With regards to Sammy’s omission from the squad, the Chairman [of selectors Courtney Browne] noted that the named-squad was selected purely on players’ performances.” Sammy hardly made an impact during the World T20 in India: he faced 13 balls in his three innings, scoring eight runs, and bowled three overs, taking one wicket. “The selection panel has expressed its thanks to former captain, [Darren] Sammy for his leadership of that format of the game for the two World Championship titles in 2012 and earlier this year,” the release said. Brathwaite had struck four consecutive sixes to win West Indies their second World T20 final, in April this year, and has played seven ODIs, the CPL and a Test against India in Antigua since then. “Brathwaite is one of the most talented players in the T20 format of the game and his humble and committed approach to the game can inspire young and upcoming players,” Browne said. “We are looking forward to a competitive series against India in these matches.” Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard, who had both pulled out of the World T20 squad for different reasons, returned to the T20 squad. While Pollard had withdrawn because of “lack of sufficient progress in his rehabilitative work”, Narine’s reason was “insufficient progress in the rehabilitative work on his bowling action”. They had both played in the tri-series against South Africa and Australia in the West Indies in June. Narine had finished as the second-highest wicket-taker in the series and Pollard scored 205 runs from seven matches at an average of 41. Denesh Ramdin, Sulieman Benn, Ashley Nurse and Jerome Taylor were left out of the T20 squad. Ramdin had recently been dropped from the Test squad too. He scored 135 runs in eight CPL matches recently after the 197 runs he scored during the tri-series at an average of 28.14. Benn took only three wickets in seven matches in the tri-series and had an unimpressive CPL with four wickets from seven matches with an economy rate of 9.19. Taylor played four tri-series matches for only two wickets but collected 13 wickets from eight CPL matches, but it wasn’t enough for him to retain his place in the national squad. Nurse played only three CPL matches without any wicket. (Cricinfo)