HINDS
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, CMC:
BATTING STAR Brian Lara has been rested for the upcoming Digicel three-match One Day International Series against Pakistan that begins in St. Vincent tomorrow.
In a West Indies Cricket Board release yesterday, Convenor of West Indies selectors, Joey Carew said "the selectors felt it necessary to give Brian Lara a rest before the Test matches against Pakistan and thought the one-day series was the correct time."
The left handed genius endured a wretched run of form during the ODI series against South Africa, finishing with just 74 runs in five innings at an average of 14.80.
This comes on the heels of a successful run in the preceding Test series where he slammed two centuries en route to an aggregate of 393 runs at an average of 78.60.
"His absence puts a lot of additional responsibility on the team and we look forward to them taking up this challenge," Carew said.
Fast bowler Fidel Edwards is the only other change to the 13-man squad that played in the last ODI against South Africa.
Wavell Hinds, who was dropped after the first two matches of the recent ODI series, makes his return along with left arm seamer Pedro Collins.
"As we had stated earlier we would be trying different combinations and we have brought back Wavell Hinds and Pedro Collins," Carew noted.
"We have to put the South Africa series behind us and take what we learnt from it into the matches against the Pakistanis and I look forward to some measure of success in this series."
The series will move to St. Lucia on Saturday and Sunday for back-to-back matches.
WI SQUAD:
Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Christopher Gayle Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Corey Collymore, Daren Powell, Pedro Collins, Ian Bradshaw.
