LONDON, CMC – India will pose a big challenge but West Indies are confident they can upset the reigning World champions, captain Dwayne Bravo said ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Group B clash in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Both teams have won their opening fixtures, with India beating South Africa by 26 runs in the tournament curtain-raiser last Thursday and West Indies edging Pakistan by two wickets in a low-scoring thriller at the Oval on Friday.
The Windies will return to South London venue in search of yet another victory and Bravo said his side were confident of turning back the powerful Indians.
“It’s another tough game of a team coming up against a team where the strength is their batting. We have the right bowlers, who can control their batting … but like I always say, cricket is played on its day. India could turn up on Tuesday and be knocked over,” Bravo said.
“But we have the right attack. We have the reserve bench that is strong enough to actually come up with the 11 that I think will do well against the Indians. It’s all about how we all come together and try to make the best decision at the right time for the team.
“It was important that we got our first win out of the way and look forward to the rest of the games ahead.”
After downtime on Saturday, the Windies were back in training on Sunday with a full session in the outdoor nets at the Oval. They will hold another full session on Monday afternoon as they beef up their preparations.
They will take the confidence of their two-wicket win over Pakistan into the game, and will hope to collect another two points which will virtually assure them of a spot in the semi-finals.
Bravo noted that even though the victory was not as convincing as they would have liked, the result in the end was all that mattered.
“In the morning if I said Pakistan are going to be out for 170, I would take that any day. We wanted to bowl first as a team. I know I have two very good fast bowlers and once they put the ball in the right area and pitch up the ball, obviously, they will have wickets,” Bravo pointed out.
“It was a tough situation and we came out on top and that’s more important. It doesn’t matter if you lose eight or nine wickets, we got the two points that we wanted. So that was a very important game to us.”
Chasing a paltry 171 for victory, West Indies stuttered and stumbled before getting home in the 41st over.
“I never thought we would lose. Chasing 171, we have been through tougher situations than this and come out on top,” Bravo said.
