IPL heroics sees veteran all-rounder in West Indies sights for T20 World Cup

Thursday, 18 April 2024 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The West Indies are not giving up hope on Sunil Narine reversing his retirement decision and featuring at this year’s T20 World Cup.

West Indies T20I Captain Rovman Powell has revealed he is trying to coax in-form all-rounder Sunil Narine out of retirement to play for the Caribbean side at June’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

Narine has been one of the surprise packets of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons and the 35-year-old showed his class with a superb century for the Kolkata Knight Riders in their loss to the Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens on Tuesday.

It catapulted Narine into third place on the leading run-scorers at the IPL this year and gave a timely reminder to West Indies’ selectors of just how damaging the hard-hitting left-hander can be at the top of the order.

The issue is Narine hasn’t played an international match since August 2019 and officially announced his retirement in November last year, leaving little hope that the talented all-rounder will feature at the 20-over showcase this year that the West Indies will co-host with the USA.

But Powell - who captains the West Indies’ T20I side and was in the Rajasthan Royals side that saw Narine’s superb innings of 109 from close range - suggested there may still be some chance the veteran will play at this year’s T20 World Cup.

“For the last 12 months, I’ve been whispering in his (Narine’s) ears, but he’s blocked out everyone,” Powell said.

“I’ve asked (Kieron) Pollard, (Dwayne) Bravo and (Nicholas) Pooran. Hopefully, before they select the team, they can crack his code.”

Narine said earlier in the IPL that he would likely be watching the T20 World Cup from home, but he hinted at a potential U-turn post-match when asked if he would reconsider his retirement decision.

“It is what it is, but let’s see what the future holds,” Narine said.

Narine has played a total of 51 T20I for the West Indies and played a major role in helping the Caribbean side to success at the fourth edition of the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2012.