T20 World Cup 2021 | The inexperience of our spinners can work in our favour, believes Kieron Pollard

10/17/2021

West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard believes that despite the inexperience of the spin bowlers in the team, they can do well in the showpiece event. The squad consists of spin bowling options such as Hayden Walsh Jr, Roston Chase, and Fabian Allen as Sunil Narine was overlooked by the selectors.

Walsh, Chase and Allen are playing their first T20 WC for the defending champions. Walsh is the only frontline spinner in the team as Chase and Allen are primarily batsmen who can bowl. However, Pollard has backed his tweeters saying that they can provide much-needed control in different situations.

"In the recent past, for whatever reason, finger spinners have come back into favour. They have more control in different and difficult situations as well as to where they want to put the ball where it's needed. If you want a guy to bowl consistently to the bigger side of the ground if you have a finger spinner bowling there, he has more control. We have a couple of finger spinners in our armoury as well and hopefully we can maximize the dimensions of the ground and whatever spin is there at any given time, he can use that. Yes, our spinners might not be experienced, but that can work in our favour," Pollard said.

Pollard added that a lot of players played in the IPL in the UAE which was the perfect preparation for the world event.

"It was good, not only us but all the players who are involved in this World Cup to get a feel for what UAE has to offer. I'm sure some interesting stats, comparisons, some different kind of trends may have come out of the recently-concluded IPL. You have to take those into consideration, the context of the surfaces, the atmosphere and put in into your game plan and try to plan according to the opposition. For us, most of our guys got the opportunity to play in the IPL in the UAE. Trying to start on a positive note and get the first points and see what happens after that," Pollard added.

The 34-year-old concluded by saying Chris Gayle must be looking to defend the title for the team. Gayle has had a lean year with the bat this year. He has scored only 226 in 16 T20s so far averaging 17.46.

"No words to describe what he has done for us in T20 cricket or in World Cups or T20 World Cups. The guy with the most amount of runs, most amount of sixes, the fear that he instils in bowlers when he's standing at the opposite end. So he may be 97 runs away but I don't think he'd be looking at that. For us and him the main goal is to win a WC and defend the title and he's looking forward to it. He did take a break in the IPL because he needed it because obviously this is also a big tournament for him. I hope everyone understood the nature of what transpired because living in bubbles after bubbles can be difficult. If a guy who enjoys himself in any situation can't take it, then it may be difficult for some for us. Hopefully he comes and delivers for us," concluded the 34-year-old.

West Indies will begin their campaign against England on October 23 in Dubai.