Mumbai call in Jerome Taylor for injured Malinga

Mumbai Indians have signed West Indies pacer Jerome Taylor as a replacement for the injured Lasith Malinga for the remainder of IPL 2016. Taylor trained with Mumbai on Wednesday, and will be available for selection for their game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Thursday.

A knee injury has kept Malinga out of action since February this year; he last played competitive cricket in the Asia Cup and missed out on the subsequent World T20. His participation in the IPL was always doubtful, but Mumbai had decided to wait until their first five matches were completed to give him time to recover before looking for a replacement. The highest wicket-taker across IPL seasons, Malinga was eventually ruled out of the 2016 tournament on April 17.

Taylor has been involved in the IPL in the past, as part of Kings XI Punjab and the now defunct Pune Warriors. While he didn't get to play a match during his time with Kings XI, Taylor represented Pune Warriors in five matches in the 2011 tournament, taking six wickets at an economy rate of 8.05. Overall, in 61 T20s, Taylor has 74 wickets at an average of 23.18, having conceded 7.81 runs to the over. He was part of West Indies' squad for the 2016 World T20, but played only one game where he went wicketless.