Shimron Hetmyer was available, did not get selected: Desmond Haynes

ST. JOHN'S: West Indies men's lead selector Desmond Haynes informed that Shimron Hetmyer had made himself available for the ODI World Cup 2023 qualifiers in Zimbabwe but did not get selected as per ESPNcricinfo.

He further said that the selectors wanted to keep the same team which did well in the white ball series in South Africa earlier this year.

Hetmyer has impressed everyone with his recent performances in the ongoing Indian Premier League tournament. He has played 13 matches so far in IPL where he has scored 254 runs with a strike rate of 150.30. However, he was not part of the World Cup qualifier squad and three-match ODI series against UAE in Sharjah.

Therefore, Haynes believes that it would be fair to stick with the guys who had done well in South Africa. West Indies had drawn the ODI series 1-1 and won the T20I series 2-1.

"Yes, Hetmyer was available. He did send through an email or correspondence to Jimmy [Adams], our director of cricket, stating that he was available for the tour," Haynes said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. "What we selectors decided to do was that we've just had a new [ODI] captain in Shai Hope and he was very happy to express his views about the type of camaraderie we had in the team in South Africa.

"We as selectors saw commitment, we saw a real change in our approach to one-day cricket, and we thought it was only fair to stick with these guys, " he further added. Hetmyer has not played an ODI cricket for West Indies since July 2021 and the last time he played T20I for the Indies was in August 2022.

West Indies' selector cleared that no player has been ruled out of selection. "I must say, though, that I just want the public to know that nobody has been ruled out of selection for West Indies. We do not have the depth of players to rule out anybody for selection," he said.