West Indies opener, Lendl Simmons has been ruled out of the 2016 ICC World T20 that is scheduled to start next week in India. Simmons has withdrawn the T20 world tournament due to a back injury. West Indies will be announcing a replacement for the batsman in the next few days.
The West Indies team were due to arrive in India on March 7, ahead of their official warm-up matches against India on March 10 and against Australia on March 13. Simmons, however, will stay in Trinidad and continue the rehabilitation for his injury.
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This will come as a big blow to West Indies, who have already lost players such as Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo ahead of the upcoming World T20.
Although Simmons did not have a fabulous T20I record, his experience playing on Indian pitches for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In 34 T20I matches that Simmons has played, he has scored 761 runs at an average of 25.36 and a strike rate of 113.92. The 31-year-old's IPL record, on the other hand, is nothing short of being commendable as he has scored 934 runs in just 21 matches at an average of just under 50 and a strike rate of 127.59, with an unbeaten century and nine fifties to his name.
Following this development, it is most likely that Chris Gayle will partner either Johnson Charles or Andre Fletcher at the top of the batting lineup for the Caribbeans.
West Indie will be playing in Group 1 of the Super 10 Stage of the World T20. The Caribbeans will face England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and one of the qualifiers from the first round of the tournament.
WI Squad (following Simmons’ injury): Darren Sammy, Chris Gayle, Andre Fletcher, Johnson Charles, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Denesh Ramdin, Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn, Samuel Badree.
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