Jonathan Trott’s return to the England Test fold owes much to him “enjoying his cricket again”, according to National Selector James Whitaker.
Trott is back in a senior England squad for the first time since leaving the 2013-14 Ashes tour with a stress-related illness.
The batsman has worked his way back into contention with impressive performances for Warwickshire and England Lions, captaining the latter in January’s first-class tour of South Africa.
The 33-year-old, who has 49 Test caps, was today named in a 16-man party for three Tests versus West Indies in April and May.
Speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk, Whitaker said:“(It’s) really well done for all the efforts he’s put in over the last 12 months or so.
“A really good end of season for Warwickshire. He ended up scoring five hundreds, and then rounded up some really good form in South Africa for the Lions in which he captained and got a double-hundred.
“He seems to be back on form and enjoying his cricket again, which was the main thing we wanted to see.
“He’s very relaxed, and we’re looking forward to have his maturity back involved and all his experience. It’ll be a really positive thing.”
England, who have called up uncapped trio Adam Lyth, Adil Rashidand Mark Wood, will have to make do without Trott’s county colleague Chris Woakes in the Caribbean.
Woakes suffered a foot injury towards the end of England’s World Cup campaign and is likely to be out of contention until May.
There is better news on Moeen Ali, who is recovering well from a side strain and could join the latter part of the tour.
On Woakes, Whitaker said: “He’s going to take a while to get rehabilitated, probably a couple of months or so, but hopefully be pushing for a place in the New Zealand series.
“Moeen (is) a little bit uncertain to his length of time for rehab. So we’re going to leave him here.
“We’re going to get him fully right, and then of course we’ve got the option of including him in the back-end of the tour if we feel it’s necessary and he’s fully, 100 per cent fit.”