Kolkata, CMC: There will now be three West Indians in the Kolkata Knights Riders squad for the remainder of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.
Two-time champions KKR named on Thursday two-time Twenty20 World Cup winner Johnson Charles to replace Litton Das in their squad after the Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman was chosen to play for his home nation in the One-day International series against Ireland, starting next week.
Charles will link up with former West Indies teammates, all-rounder Andre Russell and off-spinner Sunil Narine in the line-up for the struggling KKR, who are eighth in the standings on six points with five matches remaining, including against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday.
Like Das, the 34-year-old from St Lucia can play the role of wicketkeeper-batsman and has represented West Indies in 41 Twenty20 Internationals, scoring 971 runs, and was a member of the squads that won the 2012 and 2016 ICC T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and India, respectively.
He spent the past six years out of the Caribbean side. Still, he returned last October and has appeared in seven matches, culminating with a brutal 39-ball hundred against hosts South Africa in March to break the record for the fastest T20I hundred in the format by a West Indies batter.
Charles will bring to KKR vast experience in the format, having played close to 200 T20s in domestic tournaments in diverse places such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka and having scored close to 5 000 runs at a strike rate of more than 120.
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