Thursday 7 February 2019 12:34, UK
Chris Gayle is set to make his Windies return in the upcoming ODI series against England after missing last year's tours of India and Bangladesh.
The 39-year-old, who has hit 9,727 runs in 284 ODI matches, made himself unavailable for both trips last October - but said at the same time that he wanted to take part in the series against Eoin Morgan's side.
Windies have named a 14-man squad led by skipper Jason Holder for the first two matches of the five-game series, which you can watch live on Sky Sports Cricket from Wednesday February 20.
It includes a maiden ODI call-up for Nicholas Pooran, a 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who has a strike-rate of 152.57 in eight T20 Internationals, but Marlon Samuels misses out as he continues to have treatment on his knees.
Chairman of Selectors, Courtney Browne, said: "As we continue our Cricket World Cup preparations, the upcoming series against the top ranked ODI side is a great opportunity for us to gauge where we are as a team.
"This allows us to identify any areas that need addressing relating to selection and also helps the coaching staff to fine tune their game strategy."
He added: "We welcome the return of Chris Gayle who missed the last two series and Ashley Nurse from injury. We are pleased to introduce Nicholas Pooran to the ODI squad for the first time. He is clearly a young player with undoubted talent and we believe he can add value to our middle order.
"Shannon Gabriel remains very much in our World Cup plans but with a heavy workload expected in the Test series he will be considered for selection later in the ODI series."
Fabian Allen, Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo, Christopher Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Capt), Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas
1st ODI: Kensington Oval - Wednesday February 20, 3pm
2nd ODI: Kensington Oval - Friday February 22, 3pm
3rd ODI: Grenada National Stadium - Monday February 25, 1.30pm
4th ODI: Grenada National Stadium - Wednesday February 27, 1.30pm
5th ODI: Daren Sammy Cricket Ground - Saturday March 2, 3pm
Watch the third Test between Windies and England live on Sky Sports Cricket from 1.30pm on Saturday.
You can also follow over-by-over commentary and in-play clips on our rolling blog on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app.
