Anisa Mohammed returns to West Indies squad for Australia series

Her inclusion lends much-needed experience to a squad depleted by injury as they get ready to welcome a strong Australia side. The Stafanie Taylor-led hosts will be without all-rounder Deandra Dottin, who also missed out on the England and Ireland tours due to shoulder injury. New-ball bowler Shakera Selman, and batters Chedean Nation and Shemaine Campbelle, have all been ruled out with injuries.

Anisa's 115 wickets in 102 T20Is is the most among men or women, and she has 146 wickets in 117 ODIs; no player has more than her five five-wicket hauls in women's 50-over internationals. Despite these numbers, however, the 30-year-old off-spinner has not been able to seal a place in the playing XI in recent times, and was left out of the West Indies' tour of England.

Reniece Boyce, the 21-year-old batter, who played her only ODI back in 2017 in the ICC Women's World Cup, gets a chance to add to her tally, while 19-year-old Shabika Gajnabi has been rewarded with a maiden call-up. Gajnabi, a clean hitter of the ball and medium-pacer for Guyana, is seen as one of the most promising talents in the region.

“The panel selected the best available players from the camp in Antigua over the last month, as a result of most of our senior players being unavailable due to injury,” said Robert Haynes, interim chairman of selectors. “We have included Anisa Mohammed and Kyshona Knight who have a lot of experience between them, which is required when playing against Australia, the top-ranked women’s team.

“Injuries to our senior players [gave] us the opportunity to select two of our younger players in Shabika Gajnabi and Karishma Ramharack to give the captain more options in the bowling department,” he added.

Taylor and Hayley Matthews go into the series straight from the Women's Cricket Super League, and will carry the batting along with Natasha McLean, the Knight sisters and Stacy-Ann King.

West Indies are seventh in the eight-team Championship table after 15 games, with just five wins and one no result. Australia are second, with 11 wins, but have played just 12 games as against the 18 by table-topping England, who have also lost six.

The ODI series starts in Antigua on 5 September, with the first match held under lights at Coolidge Cricket Ground. The teams then head to Barbados for three T20Is.