ICC T20 World Cup: Pollard closes the door on Narine

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, October 13: Despite his Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 heroics, Sunil Narine will not be part of the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup 2021 squad, West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard confirmed.

Narine played a key role in Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) march to Qualifier 2 of IPL 2021 as he first excelled with the ball and then smashed three successive sixes in the thrilling win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Eliminator tie at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the UAE.

Since then clamours have grown for the 33-year-old's inclusion in the West Indies World Cup squad for the ICC marquee event which also will be held in the Middle East country.

However Pollard who leads the side in the shorter versions literally closed the door on Narine.

"I've no comments on that. Enough has been said on that. I think persons have explained the reason of his non-inclusion at this point in time," Pollard was quoted as saying by the ESPNCricinfo website.

Narine has taken 11 wickets in eight IPL 2021 matches since the league's resumption in the UAE on September 19. He went wicket-less against Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad and in an earlier match against RCB, but took three wickets in the team's two-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings.

However, he has not played any international cricket since August 2019, forcing defending champions West Indies to ignore him while announcing their World Cup squad on grounds of fitness. The ICC deadline to make changes in the squad ends on Friday (October 15).

"If I add my two cents or my words on how his non-inclusion came about, then it could be spun - just like how he's bowling on these Sharjah wickets - in all different directions," Pollard added.

"Let's deal with the fifteen guys that we've here at this moment in time, which's more important, and see if we can rally around these guys and see if we can defend our title. For me personally, I know Sunil Narine as a friend first, before an international cricketer. We grew up playing cricket together. He's a world-class cricketer," added the Bajan West Indian all-rounder, who was part of the Mumbai Indians squad which failed to make it to the play-off stages of IPL 201.