Daren Sammy has said that West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph turned down the opportunity to be part of the squad for the two-match Test series against Pakistan.
“Yeah, it is a big loss, Mr Joseph has declined selection. That’s the reality of the situation. He was selected. I mean, he’s now coming [back] from injury. And for reasons since, he has declined the selection” Sammy said in a media interaction.
“That is a decision that is way over my head,” Sammy added. “I leave that with the directors to come up with whatever solutions where contracted players get to decline selection.”
Alzarri Joseph declined Test selection, says Daren Sammy
When the West Indies announced their squad, the board said Joseph was unavailable due to personal reasons. The 29-year-old had earlier missed the tours of India and New Zealand because of a lower back injury. He returned to Test cricket against Sri Lanka and picked up six wickets in the two-match series.
He then featured in the five-match ODI series against New Zealand before pulling out of West Indies’s next assignment against Pakistan. Sammy, though, remained optimistic of the hosts’ chances against Pakistan.
“What I could tell you [is that] we have a bowling line-up that we’ve seen that could take 20 wickets,” Sammy said. “That’s the first start to winning Test matches. We saw it in New Zealand. We saw it in the Australia series. We matched Australia with the ball. We matched New Zealand with the ball as well. And the confidence and the work that the batters have put in, you could see it bearing fruit in the Test series against Sri Lanka. You know, much more consistency coming through. So once we match these two, batsmen scoring runs, we know we have the bowling line-up to take 20 wickets and help us win Test matches.
“We could see some light coming through, especially with the Sri Lanka series. Now we have Pakistan. Looking at the world rankings, we’re probably four or five points behind getting into the top six of the table. The team knows what we’re looking to achieve. And each player understands the role that they’re playing in us achieving that.”