ST. JOHN’S, An­tigua – The West In­dies Women will field the same squad that re­cent­ly com­pet­ed against Sri Lan­ka, as they pre­pare to host world cham­pi­ons Aus­tralia in a three-match T20 In­ter­na­tion­al se­ries start­ing March 19 at Arnos Vale Crick­et Ground in St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

Crick­et West In­dies con­firmed an un­changed 15-play­er squad for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed Caribbean show­down.

The Ma­roon War­riors will face the num­ber one-ranked T20 side on home soil in what promis­es to be a stern ex­am­i­na­tion ahead of this year’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in the Unit­ed King­dom.

The se­ries car­ries sig­nif­i­cant weight in the West In­dies’ prepa­ra­tion for the glob­al tour­na­ment, of­fer­ing head coach Shane Deitz and his charges a mea­sur­ing stick against the sport’s most dom­i­nant force.

“This is ex­act­ly the kind of chal­lenge we need right now,” Deitz said. “Play­ing against the num­ber one-ranked ODI and T20 team in the world, just be­fore the World Cup, gives us a per­fect op­por­tu­ni­ty to as­sess where we stand in our prepa­ra­tion. We can iden­ti­fy our de­fi­cien­cies while al­so recog­nis­ing what’s work­ing well as we look to­ward June in Eng­land.”

The Aus­tralians ar­rive in the Caribbean fol­low­ing a com­pet­i­tive home tour that saw Sri Lan­ka push the West In­dies across three ODIs. Though the vis­i­tors claimed the se­ries 2-1, the home side fin­ished on a high when cap­tain Hay­ley Matthews pro­duced a mag­nif­i­cent cen­tu­ry to se­cure a con­so­la­tion six-wick­et vic­to­ry and avoid a clean sweep.

That fight­ing spir­it will need to be on full dis­play against an Aus­tralian out­fit that has dom­i­nat­ed women’s crick­et across for­mats. The two sides haven’t met com­pet­i­tive­ly since Oc­to­ber 2023, adding an el­e­ment of in­trigue to the up­com­ing en­coun­ters.

“We haven’t played them since then, so it’ll be fas­ci­nat­ing to see the pro­gres­sion of our team,” Deitz added. “We want to mea­sure how much we’ve im­proved in cer­tain ar­eas and where we still need to de­vel­op. Our play­ers are ready to show­case their skills and demon­strate the tal­ent with­in this group. It’s go­ing to be a fan­tas­tic tour and high­ly en­ter­tain­ing for every­one.”

The squad se­lec­tion main­tains faith in the blend of ex­pe­ri­ence and youth that char­ac­teris­es the cur­rent West In­dies set­up. Se­nior stars Stafanie Tay­lor, De­an­dra Dot­tin, and cap­tain Matthews pro­vide the back­bone of ex­pe­ri­ence and match-win­ning abil­i­ty, while wick­et­keep­er-bat­ter She­maine Camp­belle stands on the cusp of a per­son­al mile­stone, as she is ex­pect­ed to earn her 150th T20 In­ter­na­tion­al cap dur­ing the se­ries.

At the oth­er end of the spec­trum, 17-year-old Eboni Brath­waite and 19-year-old Jahzara Clax­ton in­ject youth­ful en­thu­si­asm as the Caribbean side looks to build mo­men­tum in a piv­otal year for white-ball crick­et.

Fol­low­ing the T20I se­ries, the teams will shift to Warn­er Park in St. Kitts and Nevis for a three-match ODI se­ries.

West In­dies Women’s T20 Squad vs Aus­tralia:

Hay­ley Matthews (cap­tain), Chinelle Hen­ry (vice-cap­tain), Aaliyah Al­leyne, Eboni Brath­waite, She­maine Camp­belle, Jahzara Clax­ton, De­an­dra Dot­tin, Afy Fletch­er, Jan­nil­lea Glas­gow, Shawnisha Hec­tor, Zai­da James, Qiana Joseph, Mandy Man­gru, Kar­ish­ma Ramharack, Stafanie Tay­lor.

(CMC)