West Indies all rounder Keiron Pollard will not represent T&T in the upcoming Regional Super50 tournament because he is still recovering from an ankle injury.This was revealed by chairman of the national selection panel Alec Burns. The former fast bowler was speaking on the Monday Night Cricket Show on WinTv. He said Pollard was not yet fully fit and cannot be rushed back to cricket. "We will not have the services of Keiron Pollard because of his injury. A player like Pollard not being there is a big blow but we cannot look to rush the player back into action after his injury."
Burns also revealed that mystery spinner Sunil Narine will be out for the first game. "Narine has a previous engagement to take care off and he will not be home in time for the first game of the tournament. However, after that, he is available and will be a major boost when he arrives to play."Narine will be in South Africa where he will be playing in the South African domestic T20 tournament. The Nagico Regional Super50 starts on January 30 and T&T will go into action the following day. Narine will be arriving home on January 30 and will immediately join the camp.All rounder Rayad Emrit is expected to be chosen for the series but the selectors will be eyeing his progress as he is still getting back to full fitness following his shoulder injury.Emrit, an important part of the T&T set-up, fell awkwardly on his shoulder during the semi-finals of the Champions League against the Mumbai Indians and since then he has been out of action. According to Burns he has started to train but his fitness will be monitored leading up to the tournament.
The selectors met yesterday evening to finalise the team for the tournament which will be staged right here in Trinidad and Tobago. Apart from Pollard, all the other West Indian players are available for selection and T&T should be able to put out a formidable team for this series. The team that is selected will play two matches against a Rest Team on January 22 and 25 before moving on to play their first match of the tournament.Preparations continue on Friday for the Regional Four Day tournament, as the players would take part in a three-day trial match at the National Cricket Centre in Couva.