Pollard: Narine’s injury a concern

TRINBAGO Knight Riders (TKR) captain Kieron Pollard said Sunil Narine is desperate to be a more consistent member of the team in the 2019 Hero Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament, but said the spinner continues to struggle immensely with a finger injury.

The TKR bowling attack has looked below par without Narine in the line-up.

Narine has missed three of TKR’s eight matches this season including the team’s loss to Guyana Amazon Warriors, at the Queen’s Park Oval, on Monday night.

Narine has taken five wickets in five matches with an impressive economy rate of 6.65 and is questionable for TKR’s match against Barbados Tridents tonight.

Pollard said his team has had to face a number of injuries and players have missed matches because of international duty.

“We have not been on the good side of injuries...from the start of the tournament. If you look at it, we have not really been able to field our strongest bowling line-up throughout the tournament. We lost a couple guys through going back (home) and injuries as well,” Pollard said.

Fast bowler Ali Khan and batsman Darren Bravo have also missed matches because of injury and regular captain Dwayne Bravo suffered a finger injury that ruled him out of the entire tournament.

TKR’s top batsman last year Colin Munro missed the first three matches because of international duty with New Zealand and fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain was only available for the first four matches before Pakistan called him up.

Discussing Narine, Pollard said, “Narine is a concern for us with his finger. A lot of people would not believe, but he is really, really struggling and he really wants to come out and perform. So again, it is things that we have to battle with as a team and it is part and parcel of sport.

“I think in the dressing room we are doing a very good job in terms of handling that and again as I said we just need something special and hopefully it is right around the corner.”

After winning its first four matches TKR have lost three and had a no result.