The West Indies were handed a major blow ahead of the start of their T20I series against India with star all-rounder Andre Russell ruled out completely.

Russell’s return was supposed to bolster the tourists’ T20 outfit along with those of Carlos Brathwaite and Kieron Pollard but it has now emerged that the all-rounder has not even travelled to India.

The 30-year-old had been named in the initial 15-man Windies squad for the three T20s but he was absent when the tourists conducted their practice session on the eve of the series opener at Kolkata on Saturday.

In a statement released by Cricket Windies, Chairman of Selectors Courtney Browne revealed that Russell and Ashley Nurse will miss the entire series with different injuries.

“The journey will begin without some of our stalwarts noticeably Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Samuel Badree. Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are injured at this time. Ashley Nurse will miss both the remainder of the India tour and the Bangladesh tour as he recovers from his injury. We wish the team every success on a challenging assignment in India,” Browne’s statement read.

Russell had recently lent his participation to the inaugural edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) held in the UAE recently. The Windies star had turned out for the Nangarhar Leopards in the league held in Sharjah.

The Windies are already without T20 bigwigs Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine and Evin Lewis for the series and will now have to grapple with the additional loss of Russell and Nurse.

The reigning Twenty20 world champions will lock horns with the Rohit Sharma-led India outfit in the first T20 at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.