Tough to make the cut

TT Red Force batsman Jason Mohammed knows breaking into the starting XI of the West Indies team is now more challenging, but with strong performances in 2020 the middle order batsman is hoping to catch the eye of the selectors and get another chance on the international stage.

Mohammed has played 28 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for West Indies and nine T20 Internationals, with his last outing being an ODI against Bangladesh in July, 2018.

The right-hander had a prolific 2019, scoring heavily in both the regional four-day and 50-Over tournaments. In the Super50 tournament that ended in early December, Mohammed ended sixth on the scoring charts with 357 runs at an average of 89.25 that included one century and three fifties.

Mohammed scored 634 runs with three fifties and two centuries in the 2018/2019 Regional Four-Day tournament earlier in the year.

West Indies ended 2019 with some creditable performances on their tour of India under new captain Kieron Pollard and new coach Phil Simmons. Against Afghanistan, the regional team swept the ODI series 3-0, lost the T20 series 2-1 and won the lone Test match. After, West Indies were competitive against the highly rated India, losing both the T20 and ODI series 2-1.

Mohammed wants to be part of the improving West Indies team. “That’s my main goal for 2020 – to be back on the West Indies 50-Over team and definitely I want to try and get on the Test team. It is something that I have not been selected for as yet, but that will be my main goal for 2020.”

Mohammed knows the regional team is on the rise and getting selected will not be a simple task. “They (West Indies) have played very well over the last series or two. Obviously it will be difficult to break into the XI I think, but there is always room on a 14-man or 15-man squad...so once I could get myself back into that position of being in the squad sometime during the year you will be given an opportunity, so hopefully I will be back soon.”

The Windies batsmen, led by the trio of Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran, have held their own in recent months and getting selected now as a batsman will be challenging.

Mohammed is targeting more runs in this year’s regional four-day campaign that bowls off on January 9.

“Finished off the season pretty strong (in the 50-Over competition). Obviously now it is a switch from 50-Over cricket to four-day cricket. I had a good four-day tournament this year as well, scoring the most runs for Trinidad and (finishing) fifth overall and looking to better that. Hopefully I could get somewhere between 700 to 800 runs this year and try and top the chart again for Trinidad and move up that list around the Caribbean.”

The part time off spinner thinks the Red Force are in with a chance. “I think we have a pretty good team. Hopefully we could get a couple games or two and some good practice sessions before that first game on the 9th and hopefully we have a good team on paper and hope we can do a little bit better this year in terms of the four-day game.”

Red Force finished fourth among the six teams last year.