NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Struggling to cope with Dwayne Bravo’s absence, West Indies are planning to promote Kieron Pollard up the batting order and draft in spinner Nikita Miller for Monday’s World Cup Group B match against the Netherlands.
Bravo has been ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury suffered during Thursday’s defeat against South Africa and the West Indies team management said the setback has upset their World Cup strategy.
On the eve of the match here, captain Darren Sammy shared how they plan to make up for the loss.
“We might push him (Pollard) up the order to maximise his potentials,” Sammy told reporters at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday.
“He has a lot of experience in these conditions after playing in the IPL (Indian Premier League) and we need to use that.”
Despite being familiar with the conditions, Pollard fell for a first ball duck to Dale Steyn while batting at number eight against South Africa.
“Nikita Miller has a strong case for making the playing XI on this Kotla track,” Sammy said of the 28-year-old left-arm spinner from Jamaica.
“We know what to expect from the pitch now that we have played a match on the surface, it is a must-win game for us.”
His Dutch counterpart Peter Borren sounded more cheerful.
Netherlands gave England a real scare before narrowly going down on Tuesday but the grit they showed seemed to question the logic behind leaving out the associate teams from the 2015 World Cup.
“We have got a few more games and a chance to shine at this level, may be for the last time,” Borren said.
“We had a good start against England. It is a real opportunity for the guys (to create an upset against West Indies).”