Quote:The upcoming tri-series presents a daunting challenge for the hosts. The other participating teams, Australia and South Africa, are two of the top teams and so the West Indies will need to be at their best to compete.

There is some doubt that they will be. Missing from the squad are Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Lendl Simmons, all ineligible because they missed the regional 50-over competition. Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, who'd both have been in that group had they not been incapacitated, one by injury the other because he was reconstructing his bowling action, were included in what the players and many others see as confusing selection policies.

The ineligible players, for the most part, would certainly have made the team better, though there is a case to be made that their participation over the years did not yield great results. Still, it is hard to argue that the presence of the likes of Gayle, Simmons, Russell and Dwayne Bravo would not have made the West Indies a more feared unit.