World T20: Big blow for West Indies as Pollard, Narine pull out of squad: West Indies have been struck big blows ahead of the upcoming ICC event next month, with their two star players – Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard have pulled out of the West Indies World T20 squad. Carlos Brathwaite has been named in the squad as the replacement for Kieron Pollard while Narine’s replacement is yet to be announced.
A WICB release said that Pollard pulled out due to “lack of sufficient progress in his rehabilitative work”, while Narine”s reason was “insufficient progress in the rehabilitative work on his bowling action”. Narine is currently facing ban from bowling in internationals.
Pollard told the board that he had not fully recovered from an injury sustained last December, while Narine said he did not make sufficient progress on recasting his action.
Kieron Pollard has been one of the most devastating batsman, who scored nearly 6,000 runs in 299 T20s at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 153. Sunil Narine being one of the finest spinners in the T20 format, picked up 216 wickets in 168 T20 matches.
West Indies are placed in Group 1 of the Super 10 stage at the World T20, along with South Africa, England, Sri Lanka and a qualifying team. The squad will assemble in the UAE for a preparatory camp between February 22 and March 6, and will travel to India on March 7 before their tournament opener on March 16 against England.
