The giant cricketer came into notice when he troubled Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli during a tour game in 2017 with his off-spin
Cornwall extreme right celebrates a wicket with teammates.
West Indies Test team's newest recruit, off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall is a six and a half feet, three-hundred-pound giant of a player.
The 26-year-old, who is six-foot-six-inch tall and weighs around 140 kg, has 2,224 runs under his belt and has taken 260 wickets in 55 first-class matches. The giant cricketer came into notice when he troubled Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli during a tour game in 2017 with his off-spinners.
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He made his first-class debut for the Leeward Islands in 2014. There were concerns about his weight and efforts were also taken to get him into shape last year. Windies chairman of selectors Courtney Browne had also taken efforts to put Rahkeem Cornwall in a program to lose weight.
But riding a string of good performances, he made it to the team. "Rahkeem has been performing consistently over a long period of time and has proven to be a match-winner, so we believe his elevation to the Test squad is merited at this time," Robert Haynes, the head of Cricket West Indies's interim selection panel, was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
"We believe he can provide an attacking option to our bowling attack with his sharp turn and extra bounce. He can also lend a bit of depth to the batting, so we are looking forward to him coming into the squad and making a valuable contribution," Haynes said.
West Indies take on India in the first Test from August 22 with the second one starting from August 30.
Rahkeem Cornwall was picked ahead of Chris Gayle, whose request for a farewell Test was not encouraged by the West Indies cricket board.
West Indies Test Squad vs IND: Jason Holder (Captain), Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich (wicket-keeper), Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer Shai Hope, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach.
With inputs from IANS
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