HARARE, Zim­bab­we – West In­dies Women’s head coach Shane Deitz be­lieves the up­com­ing Zim­bab­we white-ball tour will present a valu­able op­por­tu­ni­ty for the team’s younger play­ers to make their mark.

Crick­et West In­dies re­cent­ly named a 15-play­er squad for the tour, which will see the West In­dies Women play three ODIs be­tween Sep­tem­ber 24 and 30 be­fore the three-match T20I se­ries be­gins from Oc­to­ber 3 to 7.

Vet­er­an De­an­dre Dot­tin and open­er Qiana Joseph have not been named in the squad, paving the way for younger play­ers to prove their worth on the tour.

Deitz said he ex­pects a chal­lenge from the home side and is look­ing for­ward to some of the more in­ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers mak­ing a strong case for them­selves to be­come reg­u­lars in the team

“We are look­ing for­ward to this tour of Zim­bab­we.

“They are a side we haven’t played much, and, in their con­di­tions, there will be some chal­lenges. We have a young squad, so this is a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for some play­ers to step up and take their op­por­tu­ni­ty at this lev­el,” Deitz said.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, he said the tour would al­so pro­vide the West In­dies with an op­por­tu­ni­ty to build on the progress made across their re­cent as­sign­ments, while giv­ing a num­ber of younger play­ers the chance to gain fur­ther ex­pe­ri­ence at in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el.

Zim­bab­we cur­rent­ly sit 10th in the Women’s Cham­pi­onship stand­ings, hav­ing lost all six of their match­es in the cur­rent cy­cle, while the West In­dies oc­cu­py fifth po­si­tion with four wins from nine match­es and ar­rive in Zim­bab­we af­ter a 3-0 ODI se­ries sweep against Ire­land.

The tour will mark the first bi­lat­er­al se­ries be­tween the two teams across for­mats.

CMC