Seales wants senior Windies call-up

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Following an impressive showing at the just-concluded ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa, Trinidadian fast bowler Jayden Seales is already targeting Windies senior team honours.

He was one of the tournament’s leading fast bowlers with 10 wickets as Windies Under-19s reached the quarter-finals before bowing out with a fifth-place finish.

Seales said his aim was now to make his first-class debut with the ultimate dream of representing Windies in the longest format.

“I always told my father I want to play Test cricket. I want to open bowling in Test cricket,” Seales told NewsDay here.

“For me right now it is about staying fit, training harder, getting myself ready to play four-day cricket, and hopefully get into West Indies A team or the senior team soon enough to play for the senior team in Test cricket.”

Seales played a critical role in the Windies success in the group stages. His four-wicket haul in the Caribbean side’s opener sent pre-tournament favourites Australia tumbling cheaply for 179, setting up a three-wicket win.

And even though he went wicketless in the second game against highly regarded England, his 10 overs cost just 21 runs as opposing batsmen found the going difficult against him.

Seales produced another four-wicket haul against Nigeria, helping Windies to finish the group stage unbeaten.

For his efforts, Seales was one of two Wondies players – the other was all-rounder Nyeem Young – to be selected to the team-of-the-tournament.

GOOD PERFORMANCE

“For me personally, it was a good performance. Coming off the tri-series (against Sri Lanka and England) I did not have the best performance,” he said.

“I wanted to do better for the team so I trained very hard when I came back home and in the World Cup itself [in] the training sessions I worked hard.”

Windies looked set to reach the semi-finals when they reduced New Zealand to 153 for eight in pursuit of 239 for victory in the quarter-final. However, tail-enders Kristian Clarke and Joey Field staged a record 86-run, unbroken ninth-wicket stand to stun the Windies.

Controversially, Seales sent down only six overs in the contest for just 21 runs but was never brought back with the game slipping away.

“It was a good performance by the team,” he said of the Windies’ performance in the tournament.

“I know we could have done better especially against New Zealand, but all that is in the game so it is just about us learning from it and going on to being better cricketers in the end.”