AHMED­ABAD, In­dia – For Trinida­di­an spin­ner Khary Pierre, the dream that be­gan in his child­hood liv­ing room, watch­ing West In­dies leg­ends like Bri­an Lara, has fi­nal­ly be­come a re­al­i­ty.

Af­ter a dom­i­nant do­mes­tic sea­son, the left-arm spin­ner has re­ceived his first call-up to the West In­dies Test squad, and for him, the emo­tion is al­most be­yond words.

“It’s a great ho­n­our, a priv­i­lege to rep­re­sent the West In­dies. It’s some­thing I dreamt of when I was young, watch­ing Test crick­et. I was re­al­ly hap­py. Words can’t ex­plain how I felt at that mo­ment.”

De­spite not com­ing through the youth ranks, Pierre’s hard work and de­ter­mi­na­tion over the years are fi­nal­ly bear­ing fruit.

His se­lec­tion to the se­nior team is a di­rect re­ward for his ex­cep­tion­al per­for­mance in the re­cent West In­dies Cham­pi­onship, where he was a stand­out bowler for the T&T Red Force, claim­ing a for­mi­da­ble tour­na­ment-lead­ing 41 wick­ets. His recipe for suc­cess, how­ev­er, was sur­pris­ing­ly sim­ple.

“I was just play­ing my crick­et, try­ing to en­joy it. I think that was the key to my suc­cess this sea­son. I was out there en­joy­ing my crick­et and tak­ing the out­come out of it, and giv­ing 110%. I’m a crick­eter who will al­ways give 110% when I reach the crick­et field. I leave every­thing on the crick­et field, blood, sweat, and tears. I think that was my trade­mark this sea­son and, you know, it paid off.”

When asked about his phi­los­o­phy as a spin­ner, Pierre em­pha­sised con­sis­ten­cy and cun­ning over flashy vari­a­tions. His goal in the mid­dle is a clas­sic one: to out­think the bats­man.

“I would say con­trol, con­sis­ten­cy, and just try to stay in front of the bats­man as much as pos­si­ble. I try to use more vari­a­tions, or just try to out­fox the bats­man. I think that is the aim of any spin­ner.”

As he pre­pares for the po­ten­tial of mak­ing his Test de­but on the grand stage of In­dia, Pierre’s fo­cus re­mains square­ly on the team. He ar­rives with a clear mind­set, ready to fill what­ev­er role is re­quired to help the West In­dies se­cure vic­to­ry.

“I just want to help the team win. What­ev­er role I have to play in the team, I want to do it to the best of my abil­i­ty. And I’m gonna go there, I’m gonna give 100%.”

CMC