Je­lani Beck­les

Na­tion­al crick­eter Akeal Ho­sein will re­place fel­low left-arm spin­ner Kavesh Kan­tas­ingh in the T&T squad to face the Wind­ward Is­lands in the fifth round of the West In­dies Crick­et Board Pro­fes­sion­al Four-Day Crick­et League, which bowls off on Fri­day.

Kan­tas­ingh, who had some sol­id per­for­mances ear­li­er in the sea­son, had a dis­ap­point­ing per­for­mance against Guyana in the last round at the Queen's Park Oval in Port-of-Spain which end­ed on Mon­day. In the match, which Guyana won by an in­nings and 49 runs, Kan­tas­ingh end­ed with fig­ures of 31 overs, five maid­ens, 81 runs and ze­ro wick­ets.

Ho­sein, now 22, had a break­through year in the 2013-2014 Four-Day com­pe­ti­tion. The Queen's Park play­er con­tributed with both bat and ball dur­ing the sea­son, which in­clud­ed his maid­en first class cen­tu­ry (102 not out) and a ten-wick­et haul (11/67). Ho­sein is hop­ing to have a strong sea­son again as he fell away in the 2014-2015 sea­son.

Af­ter the Guyana de­feat, T&T coach Gus Lo­gie said he does not want to make many changes as he still be­lieves in the cur­rent crop of play­ers. "We be­lieve in the play­ers and we are stick­ing with them and we want them to be­lieve in them­selves as well." Lo­gie was dis­ap­point­ed with all as­pects of the T&T game against Guyana and said the play­ers need to analyse them­selves. "We have to as­sess con­di­tions and think the game some more and be pre­pared to fight a bit more."

The coach said T&T showed some fight at in­ter­vals, but it was not enough. "We showed some fight at some quar­ters of the game. In the first in­nings our open­ing bowlers demon­strat­ed some fight and showed what was nec­es­sary, but in the sec­ond in­nings on­ly two play­ers stepped up. On­ly Nars­ingh (De­onar­ine) and Kyle (Hope) looked the part but af­ter that noth­ing. It is frus­trat­ing."

Fast bowlers Uth­man Muham­mad and Mar­lon Richards shared in a ninth wick­et part­ner­ship of 108 in the first in­nings, while De­onar­ine and Hope com­bined for a third wick­et part­ner­ship of 104 in the sec­ond in­nings.

T&T now lies in fourth po­si­tion on the six-team stand­ings with one win, one draw and two loss­es. T&T will aim to bounce back against the Wind­ward Is­lands at the Beause­jour Crick­et Ground in St Lu­cia.