Off-spinner Ashley Nurse is likely to come into the reckoning for a place in the West Indies team for tomorrow's clash against New Zealand at Old Trafford in Manchester, England.
West Indies are in dire straits and must win the match to keep alive their slim hopes of getting into the semifinals. As it stands now, West Indies have three points from five matches and this has come about as a result of one win, one no result and three losses. They opened the campaign with a victory over Pakistan, then threw away a golden chance to defeat Australia on June 6, and team's third game against South Africa was washed out with the Proteas on 29/2. Since then they have suffered two massive losses at the hands of hosts and favourites England and the always improving Bangladesh.
New Zealand, on the other hand, has nine points from five matches and needs just one more win to book a place in the semis. However, although they are unbeaten so far, their final four matches are against West Indies, Pakistan, England, and Australia. Any slip-ups by them can also see them in some problems. The West Indies have to defeat New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan and hope that New Zealand loses all their remaining games to top them.
News from the camp is that they are looking to bring in spinner Ashley Nurse for the game against New Zealand, seeing that the track is a good one for batting at Manchester and will not give the fast bowlers the kind of assistance they have been getting at some of the other venues.
The thinking is that the team is off-balance with Chris Gayle as the only spinner and they are heavily reliant on the fast bowlers to get the job done. One of the quick bowlers in Shannon Gabriel or Oshane Thomas is likely to make way for Nurse. There is also the thought of playing Kemar Roach who is the only West Indies bowler who bowls with English conditions in mind.
There have also been calls to replace the injured Andre Russell but the on tour selectors are reluctant to leave him out, thinking he is just one knock away from something special.
The team will practice this evening at 6 pm as their clash will be day/night encounter.