PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A shoulder injury has forced fast bowler Ravi Rampaul out of Trinidad and Tobago’s squad for their Regional Four-Day clash with Barbados starting Thursday in Bridgetown.
Rampaul, who will now stay behind and receive treatment, has been replaced by batsman Marlon Barclay.
The 27-year-old, expected to be one of the spearheads of the West Indies attack in the upcoming series against Australia, also missed the opening round fixture in Barbados against Combined Campuses and Colleges a fortnight ago.
Rampaul’s absence further depletes a side already without all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, batsman Kieron Pollard and fast bowler Kevon Cooper but Omar Khan said he still expected T&T to get the best of Barbados.
“In recent years we have enjoyed the battles with Barbados and have come out on top in nearly every match,” Khan said.
“I see nothing significant in terms of improvement in the Barbados team, that suggests to me the result would be different this time around.”
Trinidad and Tobago started the tournament strongly, crushing Combined Campuses and Colleges by 172 runs in three days. In contrast, Barbados were humbled in their first game of the tournament last weekend when they crashed to a 120-run defeat also inside three days, at the hands of defending champions Jamaica.
Khan said Trinidad and Tobago would try to keep on Jamaica’s tails by getting full points from the Barbados fixture.
“Jamaica has now gone ahead with two wins from their two matches,” he noted.
“We got a win in our first match and we will be going hard at the Bajans in this second match to ensure we keep the pressure on Jamaica.”
SQUAD – Denesh Ramdin (captain), Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Justin Guillen, Darren Bravo, Jason Mohammed, Imran Khan, Rayad Emrit, Sunil Narine, Shannon Gabriel, Marlon Barclay, Atiba Allert, Yannick Cariah.
