Holding questions Thomas Test exclusion

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Windies fast bowling icon Michael Holding is surprised by the exclusion of fast-bowler Oshane Thomas from the 14-man squad to tour England starting next week.

The 23-year-old, who has emerged as a white-ball specialist for the Caribbean side with 20 one-day internationals (ODIs) and 12 Twenty20 (T20) since making his international debut two years ago, was named among 11 reserves who will accompany the main squad.

“The few guys I’ve seen on international tours, one of them I’m a little bit surprised he wasn’t selected in the original squad, and that’s Oshane Thomas,” Holding said on the YouTube cricket show ‘Mikey – Holding Nothing Back’.

“He is in the reserve squad. I suppose there is the possibility of him being selected if he’s in the reserve squad. I’m not too sure about the playing conditions and regulations that are being used for this tour, but normally when you have a squad, you’re supposed to select from that squad unless someone gets injured.

“I don’t know if they’re going to change anything at all to do with this particular tour because these are extraordinary circumstances, but I would’ve been hoping that Oshane Thomas would have been in the original squad.”

Thomas is inexperienced at the first-class level, however, with only 17 wickets from eight first-class matches for the Jamaica Scorpions.

More significantly, he has not played a first-class match in nearly 18 months.

Holding also questioned the omission of limited-overs batsman Nicholas Pooran, who has had a good run of form of recent, averaging 49 from 25 ODIs.

“I don’t see him in the squad at all, in the reserves or in the original Test squad. I don’t know – maybe they’re thinking he’s not a Test batsman,” Holding said.

“I would love to see him playing Test cricket but I’m not a selector, I don’t watch enough West Indies cricket to say what is right or what is wrong.”

NOT ENOUGH First-class EXPOSURE

Like Thomas, Pooran has played very little first-class cricket. In fact, he has represented his native Trinidad and Tobago in just three four-day games – all coming six years ago.

Thomas was one of six fast bowlers named in the reserves for the England tour with Test regular Shannon Gabriel, along with the uncapped Keon Harding, Preston McSween, Anderson Phillip and Marquino Mindley also included.

Another uncapped pacer, Chemar Holder, was named in the 14-man squad.

The Windies depart the Caribbean on Tuesday via private charter for the historic England tour which will mark cricket’s first-ever ‘bio-secure’ Test series, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.