West Indies were eliminated from ODI World Cup 2023 qualification race after a shocking loss to Scotland on July 1. After a failed qualifiers campaign, Jason Holder and pacer Alzarri Joseph have been withdrawn from the ongoing tournament in an attempt to manage their workload ahead of all-format series against India at home which will kick-off with two Test series starting July 12.
"Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph will depart early from the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers. They will miss the last two Super Six matches as they return to the Caribbean," Cricket West Indies (CWI) posted on its twitter handle.
"This is with the view of managing their workloads ahead of the Test Series vs India."
Holder and Joseph left the campaign with two games to go against Oman on July 5 and Sri Lanka on July 7.
Caribbean team's selector Desmond Haynes said that they have been pulled out in the best interest of the side.
"Jason and Alzarri are two of our leading bowlers in all formats," Haynes said in a statement.
"We have a full schedule for the upcoming series against India, where we begin the new ICC World Test Championship, then followed by the ODIs and the five T20Is. Therefore, we had dialogue, and it was felt the best move at this time is to have two of our leading bowlers return early from Zimbabwe."
Joseph took eight wickets from five ODIs in the tournament whereas Holder bagged six wickets. However, Holder faced the music when he was hit for 30 runs by Netherlands’ Logan van Beek in the super over.
The two-Test series is a part of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle. While Rohit Sharma-led India are on the top, West Indies are placed eighth on ICC Men's Test Team Rankings. West Indies have not been able to get even close to qualifying for the final in the previous two WTC cycles. On the other hand, India have reached the WTC final two times. Last month, they lost to Australia by 209 runs at Kennington Oval, London.
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