The West Indies women’s national cricket team has named its squad for the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup. What has caught the attention of many is that Deandra Dottin has been included in the squad for the tournament. This comes after she announced her retirement two years ago.
Deandra Dottin, who holds the record for the fastest century in women’s T20Is, surprised many when she decided to retire during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. She stated that the reason for her decision was an “unconducive” environment in the West Indies.
Since then, she has been playing in T20 leagues and scoring runs consistently. Then, in a drastic turn of events, Deandra did a U-turn and reversed her decision to retire last month, with an eye on the upcoming World Cup, which has been shifted from Bangladesh to the United Arab Emirates.
When she announced her decision not to retire, Cricket West Indies included her in the squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup. The governing body named a strong 15-member squad for the tournament. The team will be captained by Hayley Matthews and the team also features a player who has not played for the national team, Nerissa Crafton.
Deandra was last seen in action during the WCPL 2024. She finished the league stage as the leading run-scorer with 113 runs in four innings at an average of 28.25 and a strike rate of 111.88. She was also the only batsman to hit more than two sixes this WCPL season as she led her team to the final.
Dottin played a vital role for his team in the final of the tournament. He scored 53 off 38 balls against Guyana Amazon Warriors as the game went into the super over at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. In the super over, he scored an unbeaten 13 off four balls as Trinbago Knight Riders won the tournament.
Here is the West Indies squad for the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup
Hayley Matthews (captain), Shermaine Campbelle, Aaliyah Alleyne, Afy Fletcher, Ashmini Munisar, Chedean Nation, Chinelle Henry, Deandra Dottin, Karishma Ramharack, Mandy Mangru, Nerissa Crafton, Qiana Joseph, Shamila Connell, Stafanie Taylor, Zaida James
West Indians are excited about the return of Deandra Dottin – Kishore Shallow, President, CWI
Kishore Shallow, the CWI president, spoke about the squad that will be participating in the 2024 Women’s T20 World Championship and said that they have a combination of youth and experience in the squad. Shallow also spoke about the inclusion of Deandra Dottin and said that the West Indies women will be excited to see her back. Shallow explained:
“We have a good combination of experience and youth. We have some players who are bordering on the level [on] 19;I think Zaida [James] I’m probably still a teenager and one or two of the younger players are there. So I’m very happy with the mix.
“Also, I think all West Indians are excited to see Deandra Dottin back. It’s been a year of communication, back and forth, with Deandra, and I want to especially acknowledge the involvement of Ann Browne-John, who led those conversations over the last year, even when she was not officially the coach. She was instrumental in bringing Deandra out of retirement,” Shallow concluded.
