NELSON – The West Indies will be without the services of their Test and T20 captain, Darren Sammy, for the rest of the One-Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand.
ODI captain Dwayne Bravo has confirmed that Sammy has been ruled out following a hamstring injury which prevented his participation in the last ODI at Queenstown.
“It’s a big loss. Darren is out for the entire series,” Bravo said.
“We haven’t decided on what changes to make yet and we’ll do so when we look at the pitch”.
West Indies took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series after an unbeaten 43 in 27 balls from Sammy guided the tourists to a narrow two-wicket win.
Bravo says the absence of Sammy will be tough on the team but he is counting on newer players to step up.
“We have a couple niggles in the camp but with Darren out, he brings so much to our team, especially in the depth. His experience and positivity will be missed,” said Bravo.
“It’s a tough time for us but our newer players will have to step up. Our players have a good work ethic so I’m confident in them.”
West Indies have been hit by injury to a number of players including opener Chris Gayle, who sustained a hamstring injury during the first ODI on the Indian tour, and Marlon Samuels, with a chronic wrist injury.
Samuels has returned to Jamaica for surgery while Gayle is recuperating in Australia.
After Corey Anderson pummelled West Indies’ bowling attack with a record ODI 131 off 47 balls, Bravo admitted that they were coming up with new tactics for him, as well as Jesse Ryder, who smashed a whirlwind 104 from 51 balls.
“Our bowlers were disappointed. It was a great knock from Anderson but we’ve been analyzing footage and studying the size of the ground. It’s going to be a different ball game. We will not be making the same mistakes twice.
“We’ll be going back to basics like we did in the first ODI and be disciplined. Bowling to one side of the wicket is important and we didn’t do that in the last match.”
He added that he felt Anderson’s cavalier knock was due to the fact that it was a shortened match as he would not be that swashbuckling in a 50-over fixture. Bravo stated that if the weather didn’t interrupt, his bowlers would fare better. (CMC)
