ST JOHN’S: West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle has officially reversed his decision to retire from One-day Internationals and been named in the 14-man squad for next month’s three-match series against India.

The recent World Cup was supposed to be Gayle’s swansong, but he indicated during the tournament he would play on with an eye to breaking Brian Lara’s record for the most runs by a West Indies player in ODIs.

He is 12 short of Lara’s mark of 10,405 runs.

The 39-year-old Gayle had a disappointing World Cup, with just two half-centuries in eight innings, but retains the faith of the selectors.

“Chris is a very valuable player and he brings a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge, he lends a lot to any dressing room and it is great to have him in the squad,” said interim West Indies head coach Floyd Reifer.

West Indies are coming off a poor World Cup, where they were expected to challenge for a place in the semi-finals but finished ninth in the 10-team event in England and Wales.

“We had a number of young players in the last World Cup squad. We played some decent cricket. We were in match-winning positions, but we just didn’t win the key moments or finish off the games,” said Reifer.

The ODI series against India will be played on Aug 8 in Providence (Guyana) and Aug 11 and 14 in Port of Spain.

It will be preceded by three Twenty20 Interna­tionals — two in Florida and one in Providence.

India’s tour will wrap up with two Tests, which will be part of the new World Test Championship.

Squad: Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, John Campbell, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Roston Chase, Fabian Allen, Carlos Brathwaite, Keemo Paul, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas, Kemar Roach.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2019