West Indies V India: Analysis of West Indies in T20 World Cup
West Indies were placed in the same group in the ICC World T20 as England and Ireland. Due to Mr. Duckworth Lewis, the rain helped West Indies top the group stage and allowed them to move to the next stage against the big boys. West Indies had entered the semi-finals of the T20 World cup 2009. This year they are already looking at possible elimination due to the loss against Sri Lanka who scored 195 runs and in reply West Indies only managed 138. With India to face today and Australia yet to come, this makes life very difficult for West Indies. To keep their semi final hopes alive, they must win the game against India today and repeat that against Australia in the next game. Let’s see if they have the goods:
Strengths:
Powerful batsmen. Simply powerful, with the ability to clear the field like nobody else. In fact, there are other players in the tournament who can probably do it, but in Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard, West Indies has two such batsmen who can get going.
However, it is not restricted to powerful batting alone that the West Indies will be really proud of. It is something much more than that. In Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, they have two batsmen, who can play the dual role; they can defend and attack and even when they score runs quickly, it is through some graceful batting. The pair was injured for a long time, but now is fit and it should be interesting to see how well they go.
Given the pitches are going to behave in a manner which should assist the slower bowlers, it is not only the aggressive batting of the likes of Gayle and Pollard that will count, but also the seniority of the pair of Sarwan and Chanderpaul that will make the batting look better that it actually is.
Weaknesses:
West Indies have often underperformed on the world stage in the recent times, and they have been rather inconsistent. The reason for that has been their inability to be able to seize the big moments in the game, in much like the same manner as an Australian team would do, or so would an Indian side.
Plus, the West Indian fielding is something of an issue. They have, in the past, exhibited a bad habit of dropping some simple catches, and that has not helped them one bit, especially in a format where every run saved or catch taken is worth its weight in gold.
Opportunities:
The tournament is being played in the West Indies and so, this should be their best opportunity to excel in front of their home crowd. Not only that, but apart from Zimbabwe, West Indies is the only side which has had the practice of playing on these very pitches only a month back when these two sides were involved in a series of T20I and ODIs.
This means that West Indies will understand the pitches and more importantly the grounds like no other. They will understand that there is much importance in making use of the spinners more than any other team given that they had faced up to a barrage of spin bowling from the Zimbabweans in that series!
Threats:
The biggest threat is at the top of the innings. The problem that the West Indian side could face is with the long boundaries and the slow pitches, the guys like Gayle and Pollard may not be as successful at their trait as they would otherwise be.
Unfortunately, rarely have the two been able to bat in any other manner than their usual slam bang fashion and that would mean that the side will need to start relying on the rest of the guys if they are serious about winning the games and in turn the tournament. The pressure from the fans to win and being the team with the worst run rate might prove to be just too much for Chris and Co to lose the match before it begins.
Players to watch out for:
Apart from the aforementioned guys, that is, Gayle, Pollard, Chanderpaul and Sarwan, it is interesting to note that the West Indian side will rely on their spinners more than their pace bowlers! Yes, it will be an attack comprising of Suleiman Benn and Nikita Miller, both of whom are left spinners, who could get the West Indian closer to the win with their ability to dry up the runs and ensure that the opposition plays some really rash strokes but India plays spin very good so this advantage might not be as good as perceived.
The one other player I would keep a close eye on is the out of form all-rounder from Trinidad and Tobago, Dwayne Bravo, who have had recent gig with IPL in India. Could just be the difference between West Indies and India or Australia.
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