Shai Hope has been ruled out of the first Test match for West Indies against Sri Lanka at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua due to a left shoulder strain.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) updated earlier this morning that Hope sustained the injury during Tuesday’s final training session ahead of the series opener. They did not outline how the injury occurred but indicated that further assessments will be conducted to determine the batter’s availability for the second Test which bowls off on Friday July 3.
Hope, who is the West Indies white ball captain, was expected to feature prominently in this upcoming series and this is a major blow to the West Indies batting line-up.
The 32-year-old Barbadian scored two centuries in his last four matches away from home – 103 against India in New Delhi and 140 against New Zealand in Christchurch.
West Indies enter the series confident as they are playing on home soil. They are at the bottom in the ICC Men’s Test Championship table with 4.17 points and are also languishing near the bottom of the ICC Test rankings with 68 points in ninth spot out of 10 teams.
Today’s first Test match bowls off at 10am. (PS)