‘One for the future’: Windies management impressed by Guyanese Gajnabi

Guyanese all-rounder Shabika Gajnabi has played 12 matches for the senior West Indies women team, and has now been appointed Vice-captain of the A-team for the upcoming tour by Pakistan in Antigua.

Both Head Coach Courtney Walsh and Ann Browne- John, West Indies Women’s and Girls Lead Selector, said they are impressed by the 20-year-old and see her as a bright prospect for the future.

The A teams will play three T20s, which will be played on the same day and at the same venues as the T20Is as “double-headers”, followed by three One-Dayers from June 30 to July 16.

Matches will be played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and the Coolidge Cricket Ground.

Browne-John expressed on Saturday at a Virtual presser: “We have been looking at these players for a lot of years since they have been Under-19 and coming up. The persons selected as captain and vice-captain would have been captains of their Under-19 teams. We saw not only leadership qualities, but people that we can start to groom for the future.”

The right-hander, who has been a high-performer at the regional level, has been a part of the training group in Antigua and her output has enthused the Head Coach.

“One of the reasons we have got her in that leadership role is because she been around a while and a good all-rounder,” Walsh stated.

“Her batting has come along a lot more in this camp as we focused a bit more on that and I think she is believing in herself a lot more and her skill sets. The ability she has a role to play in the team and we are not looking at her short-term, we are looking long-term and can develop into a quality all-rounder. It is a work in progress and she is working pretty hard.”

Gajnabi is joined by four other Guyanese on the A team: Cherry-Ann Fraser, Sheneta Grimmond, Mandy Mangru and Kaysia Shultz.