Guyana Jaguars spinner Veerasammy Permaul is hopeful that his success with the ball this past season of the West Indies Championships, will get him recalled to the West Indies team for the first time in almost five years.

The 30-year-old slow left-arm orthodox-spinner has played six Tests for the West Indies after making his debut against Bangladesh in November 2012 but he last played for the West Indies in June 2015 against Australia, having taken 18 wickets in his short Test career.

However, with 50 wickets under his belt, this past season at a miserly 12.98 per wicket, Permaul is hopeful that he has nudged the selectors once more.

“Playing for the West Indies is always my goal every season I play, but I wasn’t finding favour with the West Indies selectors,” he told Sportsmax.TV on Wednesday. “I don’t know how close I am to making the West Indies team but I would think after an excellent season like this one I am not far from playing for the West Indies Indies again.”

His optimism is somewhat tempered by the fact that he did miss his target of 60 wickets for the season even though Cricket West Indies cancelled the last two rounds of the West Indies Championship because of the Coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe.

 “I was on track to achieving my goal. I set myself small goals in the process. I was looking to get three wickets per innings that would take me to 60 if all the games had been played,” said Permaul who had best match figures of 15 for 77 against the Jamaica Scorpions at Florence Hall in February.

“I think I had an excellent season with the ball.  I tried to control my economy rate, be patient and that brought my success.”