West Indies name 15-member squad for inaugural U19 Women’s T20 World Cup

The Cricket West Indies (CWI), on Thursday, announced the 15-member official squad for the inaugural U19 Women’s T20 World Cup. The rising stars of the Under 19 Windies team will be led by batting all-rounder Ashmini Munisar who also skippered the side in their tours to the USA in August and last month in India.

The Women’s U19 marquee event will feature 41 matches, to be played in South Africa. West Indies have been drawn in Group C alongside New Zealand, Ireland, and Indonesia.

The selection panel with Lead Selector Ann Browne-John expressed their delight in the new faces cementing their spot in the U19 side.

“The Under 19 girls T20 World Cup will be an historic event being the first of its kind in women’s international cricket. In preparation for this the team embarked on tours of the USA and the recent Tri Series in India against the hosts and New Zealand. These series have identified some competent up and coming batters like Djenaba Joseph, Shunelle Sawh and Trishan Holder who are showing potential to transition to a higher level. We also had excellent performances from the two main spinners, captain Ashmini Munisar and Shalini Samaroo,” said Browne-John.

“We’ve held training camps over the past few months and the preparation will culminate with a final camp to be held in Antigua this month. This international exposure would no doubt be extremely beneficial, not only to this group of players, but also serve as an investment and feeder group into the senior West Indies Women’s set up,” she added.

Ashmini Munisar, who will be leading the side, stated that she is honoured to be captaining the side.

“It is every cricketer’s dream to play for their country let alone be able to captain their team, it is an immense honour that I get to do it at this historic inaugural ICC Women’s U19 World Cup. We have been playing together for the past few months and all the players are gelling and progressing quite nicely and we’re all excited to represent the West Indies,” told skipper Munisar.

Squad: Ashmini Munisar (captain), Asabi Callendar, Jahzara Claxton, Naijanni Cumberbatch, Earnisha Fontaine, Jannillea Glasgow, Realanna Grimmond, Trishan Holder, Zaida James, Djenaba Joseph, K D Jazz Mitchell, Shalini Samaroo, Shunelle Sawh, Lena Scott, Abini St Jean