Barbadian left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn has been summoned to replace off-spinner Sunil Narine in the West Indies 15-member squad for the five-match One-Day International series against India, bowling off later this week.
Benn, 33, who has taken 29 wickets in 25 ODIs at an average of 31.86 runs and an economy rate of 4.44 runs per over, last played an ODI in the 2011 World Cup but was recently recalled to the Test side for the home series against New Zealand and Bangladesh.
Narine, a 26-year-old Trinidadian, was withdrawn from the team after he was banned from bowling in the Champions League Twenty20 final on Saturday, having been called twice for a suspected illegal action while playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Benn left Barbados yesterday evening and will now join the squad in Kochi ahead of the first ODI at the Nehru Stadium on Wednesday.
Prior to his departure, Benn was in Queen’s Park where he watched the early stages of the Sagicor Super Cup match between his local club, Massy Spartan and Brathwaite Construction/Republic Bank St Catherine.
With Narine returning home, Benn got the nod over another left-arm spinner Nikita Miller, who was in the Windies’ ODI squad for the series against Bangladesh but did not play in any of the matches after appearing in six previous ODIs earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir said Saturday that he was confident Sunil Narine will return a “better bowler and a stronger individual”.
“He is, was and will always be an integral part of KKR and the entire squad will stand behind him and I hope he can come back as a stronger human being and can achieve much bigger heights than he has achieved in the past,” Gambhir said in an interview with ESPNcricinfo.
Gambhir admitted he was “shocked” when he was first told about Narine’s action being reported after a group game against the Dolphins on September 29.
“The only thing I can say at the moment is it’s a tough time for him, but he’s a strong character. I had a long chat with him after the game and I told him he needed to get this monkey off his back because he himself doesn’t know if there’s anything wrong with his action,” Gambhir said.
WEST INDIES SQUAD: Dwayne Bravo (captain), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Jason Holder, Leon Johnson, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.
(EZS)
