GEORGETOWN (Guyana), Jan 18: West Indies batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan has been ruled out of the upcoming series against Pakistan with a troublesome strained back muscle.

Sarwan, who sustained the injury in the middle of last year, will miss the two tests and three one-dayers scheduled for Sharjah starting at the end of January.

His replacement will be Sherwin Campbell, a former West Indies vice-captain.

Manager Ricky Skerrit said: “It is not that the injury is not responding, but it is responding slowly, so it has been decided to allow the muscles to recover fully on recommendation from the physio and the doctors.”

Sarwan, 21, joins Brian Lara, Reon King and Colin Stuart on the injured list. On the recent tour fo Sri Lanka, Sarwan finished second in the averages on 53.00, although he is yet to score a test century.

In the light of a spate of recent injuries, the West Indies Board held a two-day symposium earlier this week on the health and fitness of its representative teams.—Reuters