Thirty-seven-year-old fast bowler, Ravi Rampaul believes he is fit enough to rumble for defending champions, the West Indies, when he plays his first international match after nearly six years in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Rampaul’s return came on the heels of severe criticism but was accompanied by exceptional performances in the Regional Super50 and the Caribbean Premier League competitions where he ended with the most wickets.
His performances subsequently earned him a spot in the West Indies T20 squad for their title defence.
The right-arm seamer contended that he knew performance was the only way into the side and vowed to work hard to show the selectors that despite his age, he is still able to take wickets at this level.
The Trinidad pacer, who has battled a career of fitness woes, explained during a press conference yesterday, that he has experience on his side now.
“With the experience gained I know exactly what my body needed to perform. At a younger age I just wanted to continue to play cricket every day but with the experience gained playing over the years I know exactly how to train, the set of gym and running work I need to do so…I feel a bit better preparing for games in that way.”
Rampaul has built a reputation of striking early on but detailed that he has been working on three areas of T20 bowling in order to handle any situation he is thrown into.
He said, “I’ve done a lot of practice bowling in three areas of T20 cricket and whatever situation I have to play for West Indies I will try to my best… I thrive on the tough areas of the game to come out on top so whatever situations I’m put under I will try to come out on top.”
Rampaul, who was part of the T20 World Cup winning side that handed West Indies their maiden title in the format, joins five other players who took part in that event.
The cricket fraternity has seen questions posed over aging players such as Chris Gayle and Rampaul.
However, Rampaul said that experience will be required for them to secure their third title.
“Heading into big World Cup games you would need experience and with the team selected is a lot of experienced guys and a lot of young guys who have played around the world in different conditions. We know games come quick and fast and the experienced guys know how to manage themselves to play back-to-back games or play every other day with recovery and get stuff done. The experience will help us throughout this tournament,” he added.
