West Indies’ opening batsman Chris Gayle missed Friday’s World Cup win over Ireland with an abdominal strain but should be fit for the Group B clash with England in six days’ time, captain Darren Sammy said.
Sammy said the opening batsman should recover from the injury in time for Thursday’s match in Chennai, where a victory will seal a place in the quarterfinals for West Indies.“Most likely he’ll be ok,” Sammy said following victory over Ireland. “From the reports from the physio he should be ok.”
Earlier, team media manager Philip Spooner also said Gayle would be over the stomach muscle strain in time for England after he was a late omission for the Ireland game.
“We expect Gayle to be right for England,” Spooner said. “He only just missed out on the team this morning. It’s a slight strain.”
Gayle was replaced by fast bowler and ODI debutant Andre Russell on the morning of the match. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was pushed up to open with Devon Smith and made 35 in an 89-run opening stand.
In the absence of his regular opening partner, Smith hit 107 - his first ODI century — as West Indies posted 275 all out and went on to beat Ireland by 41 runs.
Spooner said Gayle had been batting well in the nets this week and was expected to be fully recovered for Thursday.
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