In a massive blow for defending champions West Indies, Fabian Allen has been ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2021 due to an ankle injury and has been replaced by left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein.
The Event Technical Committee of the tournament has approved Hosein as a replacement for Allen, the ICC said in a statement.
The Event Technical Committee of the tournament consists of Chris Tetley (head of events, chair), Clive Hitchcock (ICC senior cricket operations manager), Rahul Dravid and Dhiraj Malhotra (host BCCI’s representatives), Simon Doull and Ian Bishop (independent members).
Hosein, who has played nine ODIs and six T20Is, was a reserve as per the allowance for teams to travel with extra players in view of COVID-19 quarantine requirements.
Hosein had recently starred with the ball in this year’s CPL for Trinbago Knight Riders as he had ended up picking 13 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 4.92.
On the other hand, the replacement for Hosein in the reserves list will be the uncapped Gudakesh Motie. Motie had represented Guyana Amazon Warriors in the CPL this year.
Motie is a left-arm finger-spinner who can be handy with the bat too.
Allen was a kep player of the West Indies XI as he had featured regularly in the home season against Australia and South Africa prior to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
Allan’s presence will surely missed by West Indies as he had a T20I bowling average of 27.05 and economy of 7.21. WIth the bat, he carries a decent strike rate of 138.88 and has averaged 17.85, while being a firm contender for the title of the world’s greatest fielder.
West Indies will start their campaign at the showpiece tournament on October 23 against England at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai.
They will next face on South Africa on October 26 at the same venue before taking on the two qualifiers on October 29 and November 4 in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi respectively.
West Indies will clash against Australia in their last league game at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on November 6.
The semi-finals will be held on November 10 and 11 in Anu Dhabi and Dubai respectively before the summit clash on November 14 in Dubai.
West Indies are currently ranked ninth in the T20I rankings while England tops the chart and is followed by India and Pakistan at the second and third place respectively.
Significantly, West Indies are the only side to lift the coveted T20 World Cup twice in 2012 and 2016.
The ongoing tournament is the seventh edition of the showpiece event.