West Indies have been dealt a massive blow ahead of the upcoming World T20 in India starting in March, with both allrounder Kieron Pollard and mystery spinner Sunil Narine opting out of the 15-man squad.
Narine had been reported for a suspect action during the third ODI on West Indies’ tour to Sri Lanka last November, an assessment revealed that all variations of his deliveries exceeded the permissible 15-degree limit. Narine’s action first came under scrutiny during the 2014 Champions League T20 following which he withdrew from the West Indies squad for the 2015 World Cup to work on his bowling action.
A WICB release said that Pollard pulled out due to “lack of sufficient progress in his rehabilitative work,” while Narine’s reason for pulling out was “insufficient progress in the rehabilitative work on his bowling action”. Allrounder Carlos Brathwaite has been rewarded for his CPL performances and named as Pollard’s replacement though the WICB is still looking to fill Narine’s spot with the spinner banned from bowling in internationals.
Both Pollard and Narine had been picked in the initial 15-man World T20 squad to travel to India, despite being overlooked for the annual retainer contracts by the WICB. Pollard had earlier even been controversially axed from the 2015 World Cup squad.
Both Pollard and Narine haven’t played any international cricket since turning out for the Windies against Sri Lanka at Colombo in November, with Pollard missing in action altogether since a knee injury abruptly ended his Ram Slam T20 campaign in South Africa and ruled him out of the Big Bash.
The West Indies squad will take part in a preparatory camp in the UAE between February to March 6, and travel to India on March 7. The men from the Caribbean are in Group 1 of the Super 10 stage and will face England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and a qualifier.