On Monday, September 29, Cricket West Indies (CWI) announced that right-arm pacer Alzarri Joseph has been ruled out of the squad for the upcoming two-match Test series in India due to a lower back injury.
The decision was made after the 28-year-old complained of discomfort and the “scans revealed a degeneration of the previously resolved lower back injury”, as mentioned by the CWI in their post on their X account earlier today.
With that, the selectors of the West Indies cricket team replaced Alzarri Joseph with left-arm pacer Jediah Blades, 23, who is currently with the T20I squad in the UAE, where they are slated to play the third and final match of the series against Nepal on Tuesday. The youngster will join the Test squad after the former West Indies captain declined to replace Alzarri Joseph due to his planned medical procedure following the conclusion of the T20I series versus Nepal.
Shamar Joseph was ruled out of West Indies squad for India Test series last week
It was just last week when West Indies’ star pacer Shamar Joseph was ruled out of the India Test tour with an injury before getting replaced by fast bowling all-rounder Johann Layne. With that, the major responsibility of getting the best out of the fast bowling group falls on right-armer Jayden Seales, who has come leaps and bounds as a Test bowler over the last couple of years while the experience of vice-captain and left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican will be necessary for West Indies to compete.
The first Test of the two-match series between India and West Indies will begin on Gandhi Jayanti, Thursday, October 2, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, while the second Test will be played from October 10 onwards at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi.
Below is the updated squad of West Indies for the two-match Test series versus hosts India:
Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Alick Athanaze, John Campbell, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope (wk), Tevin Imlach, Johann Layne, Jediah Blades, Brandon King, Anderson Phillip, Khary Pierre, Jayden Seales
