T20 World Cup: Kieron Pollard opens up on exclusion of ‘greatest spinner’ Sunil Narine

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard believes that the exclusion of mystery spinner Sunil Narine from the T20 World Cup 2021 squad is a "big miss" for his side. Narine was left out of the West Indies squad for T20 World Cup 2021 despite having delivered some big performances for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League. Pollard, while acknowledging the mistake, said Narine has been a top performer for various teams all over the world and to not have him in the World Cup squad is a big miss for the West Indies. Pollard said that it's unfortunate Narine is not in the team, adding but we just have to deal with what’s in front of us ".

'Very unfortunate'

"In terms of Sunil (Narine), obviously he’s a big miss for any team. It’s something that we sort of can’t question in terms of his ability and his talent on what he has achieved, not only in the IPL, what he has done in CPL (Caribbean Premier League), what he has done over the years as a spinner, maybe one of the greatest spinners to play this format of the game. Yes, we accept it’s a big miss for us, and it’s something that as a team we would have liked to have,” Pollard said at the pre-match press conference. 

“It’s very, very unfortunate at this point in time, so for me, it’s not a matter of trying to harp on it, but we just have to deal with what’s in front of us of not having him, and trying to just go on and move on from this. For us it’s a big miss, Sunil Narine being one of our West Indian cricketers doing his due all around the world, but we just have to accept the circumstances at this point in time and try to give a good account of ourselves with the 15 guys that we have here, plus the reserves,” Pollard added. 

Narine has not played an international game for West Indies since August 2019. He was excluded from the West Indies' World Cup squad owing to fitness concerns, according to selectors. Narine, however, has proved his worth in franchise cricket all across the world, including in the Indian Premier League, where he helped his side Kolkata Knight Riders reach the final this season.

Image: AP