West Indies fast bowler Jayden Seales will not be available for selection for any cricket until around April next year as he recovers from surgery to correct an injury to his left knee, the coach confirmed on Tuesday of Red Force David Furlonge.
Seales, who was rested for the second Test in the recent two-match series against Australia, which the West Indies lost, will miss the men’s Caribbean tour to South Africa in March 2023, when the regional side two Tests, three Internationals One-dayers and three T20 Internationals.
The 21-year-old will also be ruled out of selection for the Red Force squad for the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Regional Four-Day Championship starting in February.
“Jayden is injured now and is probably out of cricket for about four months. He has a knee injury and underwent surgery. After four months, he should be able to come back and play. He has already started rehabilitation”, Furlonge is quoted as saying in the newspaper “Trinidad and Tobago Newsday”.
Seales received his first Test cap at the age of 19 against South Africa in St. Lucia in June 2021. He became the youngest West Indian player in history to take five wickets in a Test match against Pakistan in Jamaica (5-55 in the second innings) to go with 3-70 in the first innings.
Furlonge said his absence from the national team for the upcoming four-day competition would be a big blow, as he also admitted that Trinidadian bowlers Anderson Phillip and Shannon Gabriel could also be selected for the South Africa tour.
He said this would leave the Red Force with “a very inexperienced fast bowling line-up”.
“So we are looking to see how we can best prepare the fast bowlers. Many of the younger fast bowlers would never have played a three-day game, much less a four-day game. To prepare in time you will need a lot.
“We have increased our work with our fast bowlers who are available to suit up and play 15 matches a day. We need to make sure we have the right reserves in place so we can make a challenge. We are making more demands of them and hope they are up for the challenge,” he said. (CMC)
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