ST JOHN’S, An­tigua — Wrist spin­ner Vi­tel Lawes has earned his maid­en se­nior in­ter­na­tion­al call-up, head­lin­ing the 15-mem­ber Crick­et West In­dies (CWI) squad an­nounced on Tues­day­day for the open­ing three match­es of the up­com­ing five-match One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al (ODI) se­ries against New Zealand in Guyana and Bar­ba­dos.

The 19-year-old, who re­cent­ly starred at the ICC Un­der-19 World Cup—earn­ing a spot in the Team of the Tour­na­ment with 10 wick­ets and the com­pe­ti­tion's high­est tal­ly of dot balls—has been train­ing with the se­nior squad since the pre-se­ries prepara­to­ry camp.

To sup­port his in­te­gra­tion in­to the se­nior in­ter­na­tion­al are­na, spe­cial­ist coach Niki­ta Miller has been added to the man­age­ment unit for the Guyana leg of the se­ries.

​"The in­clu­sion of Vi­tel Lawes is strate­gic as we con­tin­ue our long-term vi­sion of ex­pos­ing play­ers who can com­ple­ment the team in con­di­tions that best suit their skill sets," said Head Coach Daren Sam­my.

​The squad oth­er­wise re­tains the core group that re­cent­ly faced Sri Lan­ka in Ja­maica, though a few per­son­nel changes have been made. All-rounder Shamar Springer with­drew from se­lec­tion fol­low­ing the pass­ing of his moth­er; CWI ex­tends its deep­est con­do­lences to Springer and his fam­i­ly dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. Keemo Paul, re­cent­ly added to the Test squad as re­in­force­ment, joins the ODI side as Springer's re­place­ment. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Shim­ron Het­my­er was grant­ed pre-ap­proved clear­ance via a No Ob­jec­tion Cer­tifi­cate (NOC) to ful­fill his Ma­jor League Crick­et com­mit­ments.

​Look­ing ahead to the matchups in Guyana and Bar­ba­dos, Sam­my em­pha­sized that the se­ries re­mains vi­tal for the ma­roon caps' long-term roadmap to­ward the ICC 50-over World Cup in 2027.

​“Every se­ries we play from here on lead­ing up to the 50 Over World Cup, we view them as must-win sce­nar­ios," Sam­my not­ed. "The match­es against New Zealand pro­vide the best op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to con­tin­ue our im­prove­ment as an ODI unit while win­ning more match­es for the peo­ple of the Caribbean.”

​The West In­dies squad will as­sem­ble in Guyana on Ju­ly 8 fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of the on­go­ing Test se­ries against Sri Lan­ka in An­tigua.

(CWI Me­dia)

West In­dies ODI Squad Against New Zealand (Guyana Leg)

Shai Hope (cap­tain), Ac­k­eem Au­guste, John Camp­bell, Kea­cy Car­ty, Ros­ton Chase, Matthew Forde, Justin Greaves, Amir Jan­goo, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Vi­tel Lawes, Gu­dakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Sher­fane Ruther­ford, Jay­den Seales

Team Man­age­ment Unit (TMU)

Head Coach: Daren Sam­my

Man­ag­er: Rawl Lewis

As­sis­tant Coach (Bat­ting): Floyd Reifer

As­sis­tant Coach (Bowl­ing): Ravi Ram­paul

As­sis­tant Coach (Field­ing): Ray­on Grif­fith

As­sis­tant Coach (Spin Bowl­ing): Niki­ta Miller

Phys­io­ther­a­pist: Dr De­nis Byam

Strength & Con­di­tion­ing Coach: Darc Browne

Per­for­mance An­a­lyst: Ave­nesh See­taram

Con­tent & Me­dia Of­fi­cer: Jerome Fos­ter

Match Sched­ule in Guyana

1st ODI: Ju­ly 11 – Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Prov­i­dence, @ 2:30pm AST/1:30pm in Ja­maica.

2nd ODI: Ju­ly 13 – Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Prov­i­dence, @ 2:30pm AST/1:30pm in Ja­maica.

3rd ODI: Ju­ly 16 – Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Prov­i­dence, @ 2:30pm AST/1:30pm in Ja­maica.