West Indies have replaced injured fast bowler Kemar Roach with spinner Sunil Narine for the remainder of their tour of England.
West Indies call up 'mystery' spinner Narine as replacement
West Indies have replaced injured fast bowler Kemar Roach with spinner Sunil Narine for the remainder of their tour of England.
The West Indies Cricket Board confirmed Roach has left the squad to return home due to a shin injury, with coach Ottis Gibson "gutted" to lose a key member of the bowling attack.
Roach, 23, played in the opening two Tests of the three-match series as England established an unassailable 2-0 lead.
A WICB statement announced: "Roach has been sidelined with shin muscle soreness and will return home to Barbados to allow this to heal before starting a bowling programme again."
Team physiotherapist CJ Clark said: "Kemar has been carrying this soreness for the last two matches, and in view of our upcoming schedule, we would like him to have the time to recover and prevent the onset of more serious injury.
"It is always important to balance workload with the body's ability to repair, and I think it judicious to protect Kemar at this time."
Outstanding
Coach Gibson added: "We still have an awful lot of cricket to play this year and we did not want to risk losing as valuable a player as Kemar for a long period.
"He has been outstanding with the ball for us so far this year and we are all gutted by his departure."
West Indies face one further Test, starting on June 7 at Edgbaston, tour matches against Leicestershire and Middlesex, three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international on their tour.
And the selectors later confirmed off-spinner Narine had been called up to replace Roach.
IPL success
The 24-year-old is uncapped at Test level but has attracted plenty of attention due to his off-spin variety.
He has taken 14 wickets in eight one-day internationals and has enjoyed a successful Indian Premier League campaign with winners Kolkata Knight Riders.
Narine opted to play in the lucrative competition in India instead of the Test series with Australia and took 24 wickets at an average of 13.50 and an economy rate of 5.47 from 15 matches.
