West Indies coach Ottis Gibson on Sunday said mystery off-spinner Sunil Narine had not been discarded but given time off from what had been a gruelling schedule.
Narine, the region’s frontline spinner for the last two years, was left out of the 13-man squad for the opening Test against Zimbabwe which starts here on Tuesday.
He has been replaced by off-spinner Shane Shillingford who last played on the tour of England last spring. “I think he (Narine) was (considered for selection). The selectors, from my understanding, thought that since he has come into international cricket, he has played every format,” Gibson told reporters.
“He has played a lot of cricket and they wanted to give him a break more than anything else from the intensity of this cricket and let him get back and start to enjoy his cricket a little bit more.
“He is playing for Trinidad and obviously enjoying it, getting wickets and stuff like that. He is young to international cricket and I’m sure he is somebody that has a huge part to play for us in all formats.”