BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — West Indies coach Ottis Gibson has defended the fitness of injury-plagued fast bowler Jerome Taylor who is yet to play a match in the World Twenty20 Championship.

Gibson told reporters Wednesday the 25-year-old Taylor had missed the side’s preliminary round matches in Guyana because of team selection strategy.

“He’s progressing very well. He’s fit and strong and he is bowling nicely in the nets, but we looked at the pitch in Guyana where we expected the pitch to be low and slow and we went with two spinners,” Gibson explained.

Speculation has been rife over the Taylor’s fitness ever since he was picked for the tournament after having not played competitive cricket since limping out of the first Test against Australia in Brisbane last November, after bowling just nine overs.

He played just once during the Jamaica Cricket Association Festival last month and his omission from the double-header in Guyana led to further conjecture over the Jamaican’s fitness.

Gibson said Taylor could be in for action depending on the surface at Kensington Oval for the Windies’ first two Super Eight, second-round matches today and tomorrow, respectively.

“I must say the pitch in Guyana that we played England on was a proper pitch for One-Day cricket. The ball came on to the bat nicely and as you saw the batsmen were able to play their shots,” said Gibson, a former West Indies fast bowler.

“We are going to see what kind of pitch we will be playing on at Kensington Oval and with everyone in the squad fit now, we will look at the matches between Australia and Bangladesh and South Africa and Afghanistan, and then we will determine what sort of team we put out.”