West Indies suffer another blow as Lendl Simmons is ruled out of World T20

West Indian Opening batsman Lendl Simmons has become the fourth player named in the original 15-man squad to pull out of the ICC World T20 in India. The 31-year-old Simmons is nursing a back injury and missed the current West Indies camp in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He recently played in the inaugural Pakistan Super League for Karachi Kings. Dwayne Smith, who won the Man of the match in the final of the PSL after helping Islamabad United take the title last month, remains a favourite.

According to the sources, Simmons was told by a specialist doctor in Port-of-Spain that he was not fit enough to play in the March 8 to April 3 tournament, which West Indies won four years ago in Sri Lanka. Simmons’ withdrawal has left the Clive Lloyd-chaired selection panel fairly busy debating his replacement.

Simmons was a part of the West Indies squad for the 2009, 2012 and 2014 editions of the World T20, although he did not play a game in 2012 when the side won the tournament. He has played 34 T20Is since his debut in June 2007, scoring 761 runs at an average of 25.36 with four fifties, and his last game in the format was against South Africa in January 2015. Simmons has been a prolific run-scorer in the IPL and his absence will be a blow to the Caribbean islanders.

Simmons is the fourth player from the squad to be ruled out as Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo had earlier withdrawn from the team for the mega event. Narine, who had been banned from bowling in internationals in November last year due to a suspect action had cited “insufficient progress in the rehabilitative work” on his action as the reason for his withdrawal. Pollard had not rehabilitated sufficiently from a knee injury he suffered last November while Bravo pulled out by stating he wanted to focus on Test cricket.