West Indies Twenty20 Vice-captain, Nicholas Pooran, has admitted the team’s batting has lacked intent and it has been the main cause for their horrendous start to the World T20 title defence in the United Arab Emirates.
Pooran made these comments on the eve of their must-win encounter against Bangladesh on Friday morning. In two innings to date, West Indies have scored 198 runs in 34.2 overs, but they have not scored off 19.1 of those overs.
The boundary size and pitch conditions have not been conducive to their usual power-hitting style, and they have not been able to adjust with better strike rotation.
“Every single team bats dot balls but it is the way we are batting that bothers me. We are showing no intent [and] that hurt us for the last two games. We spoke about it; we have practice in a bit and guys are going to have a discussion about it again,” the Vice-captain stated.
He added, “To be honest, we don’t mind batting dot balls, it is just the intent, we know can make back up but in the first two games, we didn’t show much intent and we are much better than that as a team.
The winless West Indies are bottom of the Group One table with a -2.550 net run rate, while Bangladesh, who are also winless, have a net run rate of -1.655.
It means both sides have to win their remaining three matches and hope other results go their way in order to be among the top two teams from the group.
The two sides have only met twice at World T20 events, at the inaugural event in 2009 where the Asian side won by six wickets, and then in 2014, where West Indies won a lopsided contest.
However, Bangladesh have defeated West Indies three times in the last five matches.
“I definitely think it is a good opportunity for us to bounce back, we are not sure show Sharjah is going to play tomorrow but our focus is not on the small boundaries, to be honest. We just want to execute our skills and once we can do that, the results will take care of itself. We can’t really say it will be short boundaries and we are going to hit sixes; we want to be aggressive as a team.”
Sharjah is the smallest in terms of boundary size of the three venues, but in recent times, the pitch has not been that conducive to high scores, albeit, Afghanistan scored 190-4 against Scotland.
It will be West Indies’ first match of the tournament at this venue, moving from Dubai, while Bangladesh return after playing their first.
West Indies continue to reel from injuries, with Obed McKoy joining Fabian Allen as players ruled out, but in the in-form Jason Holder, who replaced McKoy in the 15-man squad, will be available for selection on Friday.
Match time is 06:00h.
Bangladesh squad: Mahmud Ullah (Captain), Mohammad Naim Sheikh, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Shaif Uddin, Shamim Hossain.
West Indies squad: Kieron Pollard (c), Nicholas Pooran (vc), Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein.
