Colin de Grandhomme leaves for Zimbabwe following father's death, Doug Bracewell named replacement

After the culmination of the two-match Test series, New Zealand are all set to take on visitors West Indies in the limited-overs leg of the tournament. The Kiwis registered a whitewash in the longer format, winning it 2-0 and now will aim to extend their dominion on the tourists in the ODIs. However, in a recent development, Black Caps medium-pacer Doug Bracewell has been named as a replacement for all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme for the upcoming three-match series.

Bracewell, who was sentenced to 100 hours of community service in May earlier this year for a drink-driving offense is set to receive his first call-up to the national squad since then.

According to reports by espncricinfo, Grandhomme had to withdraw from the New Zealand ODI squad for the series against the Islanders following the death of his father. He has now returned home to Zimbabwe.

National selector Gavin Larsen was quoted as saying, “Doug Bracewell has been picked as a replacement for the series which starts from December 20, with no timeline set for de Grandhomme’s return. This is obviously extremely sad news for Colin and his family and we’re all thinking of them at the moment, right now the most important thing is that Colin is with his family.”

West Indies to miss key players

Marlon Samuels, Sunil Narine, and Alzarri Joseph have all been ruled out of Windies’ limited-overs team. While Samuels pulled out due to an injured right hand Joseph suffered a back strain. Narine who’s only been named in the T20I squad cited personal reasons for his unavailability.

In their absence, 28-year-old left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell and wicketkeeper-batsman Chadwick Walton, who is a part of the T20I squad, were named to fill in the void for the upcoming ODIs.

The limited-overs matches will begin on December 20, with the first ODI in Nelson. The T20s will begin from December 29.