'Injured' Simmons pulls out of Windies World T20 squad

West Indies has suffered a major blow as batsman Lendl Simmons has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming World T20 in India due to an injury.

According to Sport24, Dwayne Smith or Jonathan Carter is likely to replace Simmons in the squad.

Smith has already appeared in 33 T20s while Carter is still uncapped in the shortest format of the game.

With the withdrawal, the 31-year-old becomes the fourth player after Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo to pull out of the Caribbean side.

Spinner Narine, who was banned for illegal bowling action in November last year, decided to withdraw from the T20 pinnacle event after he failed to make sufficient progress in rectifying his bowling while Bravo pulled out of the World T20 in order to concentrate on Test cricket.

All-rounder Pollard failed to recover from knee injury he suffered during the domestic T20 match against South Africa in November.

The ICC World T20 is slated to be held from March 8 and West Indies will play their opening match against England on March 16.