Miles Bascombe, CWI's director of cricket, revealed Russell, 36, requested 'for a period of rest and recovery'. Russell returned to the West Indies squad for the showpiece event and lately completed his stint with London Spirit in The Hundred.   Russell and Holder will work closely with the CWI science and medicine team, and Joseph - recently appointed the Test vice-captain, will continue to take his time off. West Indies' Test coach Andre Coley also spoke about managing Joseph's workload in a chat with ESPNcricinfo. "As far as Alzarri is concerned, it always helps to have a period of time away from the game to work on your individual skills because you could get drawn into moving from one tournament to the next and might actually lose some of your skills. "So, it's building in the right amount of rest time where he does nothing, but then also have little periods where he is not in competition. That way, he will be able to create more control around his bowling," the Test coach noted. Star-studded Team Meanwhile, Rovman Powell continues to lead the star-studded T20I side, with Shai Hope tipped to open alongside Johnson Charles, while rookie Alick Athanaze is a backup. The biggest plus, however, is to have superstar batters Nicholas Pooran and Hetmyer in the middle order, with Romario Shepherd there to take care of lower-order duties. Though Shamar Joseph retains his place following a superb show in the Test series, CWC picked four spinners in Gudakesh Motie, Akeal Hosein, Chase and returning Fabian Allen. "Facing a strong South Africa side is an excellent opportunity for our team to reset and refocus with our game plan," Daren Sammy, West Indies' white-ball coach, said in a CWI statement. "We have played them recently and had mixed results, so this should be an exciting and important series. I'm confident in the squad we've selected, and with eyes already on the next T20 World Cup in 2026, I know the guys will be keen to show their hunger for success," he added. West Indies squad for SA T20Is - Rovman Powell (captain), Roston Chase (vice-captain), Alick Athanaze, Fabian Allen, Johnson Charles, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Obed McCoy, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd