In a weird flip of occasions, West Indies have dropped middle-order batter Shimron Hetmyer from their T20 World Cup squad after he missed his rescheduled flight to Australia, the Cricket West Indies (CWI) mentioned in an announcement.
Hetmyer’s unique flight was postponed at his request attributable to household causes, which meant he would have needed to skip the primary of two T20 warm-ups towards Australia on Wednesday.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Brooks to exchange Hetmyer within the WI Squad for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in Australia.
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— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) October 3, 2022
“With flight availability a real challenge, a seat was found for him to leave Guyana today, meaning he would, unfortunately, miss the 1st T20 International against Australia on Wednesday 5 October at the Metricon Stadium,” CWI mentioned in an announcement.
“This morning, Mr Hetmyer, informed the Director of Cricket that he would not be able to get to the airport in time for his flight this afternoon to New York.”
The 25-year-old left-hander has been changed within the squad by Shamarh Brooks, a 34-year-old right-hander who has performed 11 T20s for the West Indies and can fly out “as soon as possible” to hitch the squad in Australia.
Windies director of cricket Jimmy Adams mentioned: “Whilst we changed Shimron’s flight from Saturday to Monday due to family reasons, it was made clear to him that if there were any further delays and issues with his travel to Australia then we would have no choice but to replace him in the squad, as we are not prepared to compromise the team’s ability to prepare for this extremely important global event.”
“Shamarh has been a part of our recent T20 International squads and delivered strong performances in the latter stages of the recently concluded CPL.”
Brooks scored 241 runs in seven innings for the Jamaica Tallawahs within the Caribbean Premier League, together with an unbeaten 109 within the qualifier remaining on their technique to successful the event.
West Indies play Australia on the Gold Coast on Wednesday and on the Gabba in Brisbane two days later. Their World Cup marketing campaign begins towards Scotland in Hobart on October 17 at Blundstone Arena, Hobart.
They additionally play Zimbabwe and Ireland, with the highest workforce from Group B going into the second group of the Super 12 stage with India, Pakistan and South Africa.