A fit and confident West Indies unit is set to battle India in the first T20I today in Kolkata at 10.00 hours.
According to captain, Kieron Pollard, all members of the squad are available for selection including him.
Pollard, who missed the second and third ODI against India, has recovered from a knee issue.
Speaking during a pre-match conference yesterday Pollard said, “As it stands right now, all 16 of us are available for selection and our final XI will be selected and take the field tomorrow…”
He added, “I think it [knee issue] has gone over the last couple of days, things have improved drastically for me. It was one of my knees had some fluid in it. I was not able to bend it. It was a bit stiff, so the 50 over game was going to be very difficult so for me it was difficult to take to the field not knowing if I could give 100 percent to the team because I pride myself in what I can contribute.”
Despite the 50-over series loss, Pollard reckons his side is brimming with confidence coming from a T20I series win over England recently.
“I think we are pretty confident. I thought that where we came from Jamaica to Barbados in the series that we played, it showed us that there is something inside the guys burning to do well and being able to come out on top against England will give you that extra confidence so coming into the series against India, I know the guys are looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to scoring runs on these sort of pitches where it is conducive to stroke play especially from a T20 perspective…”
Pollard stressed consistency as one of their major aspects to target while looking at some of their shortcomings in the England series as a pillar to improve.
“For us it is about consistency. We had a very good series against England. I think we faltered a couple times with the bat, at the back end. We can be a little bit better and from a fielding performance, we can take it up a notch and again that is a couple of areas we can improve and try to be as consistent as possible. As we would have seen from a batting perspective, which we have not been consistent at all, which is facts, so we want to be able to try to put the limited opportunities we get with the format of the game so I think for us it is about trying to improve all facets of the game and executing the best of our ability,” he said.
The Mumbai Indians all-rounder, who plays with India’s captain, Rohit Sharma in the Indian Premier League, brushed off talks about preparation for the lucrative tournament but rather divulged that this series provides a chance for the players to put their best foot forward and continue to improve from strength to strength.
Among the players Pollard has professed his pleasure with is Kyle Mayers who was drafted in the IPL recently. The skipper says Mayers is an aggressive batsman naturally and has done well in the few games he has played so far for West Indies.
Among the heavyweights that are on show for West Indies are Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd, all of whom became millionaires over the weekend in the IPL auction. Fabian Allen, Odean Smith and Dominic Drakes were also picked by various teams in the mega auction.
West Indies will again look to their big hitting middle order but their top order over the last few series has been inconsistent. With Mayers expected to play it will be interesting to see who opens the batting between Brandon King, Shai Hope or even Darren Bravo.
In spin-friendly conditions, West Indies may opt for both Akeal Hosein and Hayden Walsh with all-rounder Allen as a third option to complement the seam options of Shepherd, Smith and Holder.
Meanwhile, India have also done well in the format, winning their last six matches. With Sharma at the top of the order, Ishan Kishan, who was snapped up for the highest bid in the auction, is likely to feature alongside him with Virat Kholi and Rishabh Pant to come.
Shreyas Iyer could be in the mix to boost the batting while India will miss the services of Washington Sundar. He will be replaced by Kuldeep Yadav who will likely partner with Yuzvendra Chahal.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Virat Kholi, Kudeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur, Suryakumar Yadav
West Indies squad: Kieron Pollard (capt), Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Sheldon Cottrell, Dominic Drakes, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Rovman Powell, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Hayden Walsh
