Anguish as Olly is ruled out of Windies series

ENGLAND seamer Olly Stone has been ruled out of the West Indies Test series with a back injury.

Stone reported stiffness in his lower left back after taking part in a light practice session on Sunday and scans in Barbados revealed the bad news.

The rapid 25-year-old had been hoping to make his Test debut in the three-match series but was told his tour was over.

“Following the result of scans, Olly Stone has sustained a bone stress injury to the left lower back.

“He will return home from the Caribbean later this week and have further tests in the UK,” said a statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board.

It is terrible luck for the Warwickshire player, who saw his promising career interrupted for 18 months with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and has been restricted to just 34 first-class matches since debuting in 2012.

Ashley Giles, previously director of cricket at Edgbaston and recently appointed to the equivalent role with the ECB, warned selectors last year not to work Stone too hard.

He described the player as a “Ferrari” and cautioned against his overuse. Stone made his international bow in Sri Lanka before Christmas, appearing in four one-day internationals.

On the field, Stuart Broad claimed a hat-trick as England’s bowlers made light work of their first warmup outing in Barbados.

Broad removed tail-end trio Alzarri Joseph, Miguel Cummins and Bryan Charles with successive deliveries just before tea on day two of the practice match, continuing a profitable outing for the touring attack.

In ordinary match conditions the experienced seamer may not have had the chance to press on – Joseph and Cummins were wickets number nine and 10 of the innings – but with England agreeing to bowl all day he had the chance to make it three in three.

Charles obliged by wafting at a wider one at the start of Broad’s next over, though with two Test hat-tricks to his name he tactfully kept his celebrations under control. As the players walked off for the interval the scoreboard read 131 for 11, with the promise of further inroads in the evening session.

Broad had earlier been excused new ball duties, watching James Anderson and Sam Curran run riot.

The pair took two wickets apiece as the locals fell to 12 for four.

Elsewhere there were two wickets for Bri=ummie Moeen Ali’s off-spin and one for slow left-armer Jack Leach.