Big guns’ return gives Windies hope
After the loss in ODI series, world champions will be looking to Chris Gayle & Co for deliverance
There was finally some buzz at Sabina Park as the big names returned to play in West Indies colours.
Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, all of who missed the ODIs due to issues with the West Indies cricket board, took the field and after a brief chat with coach Stuart Law got down to business.
Cricket West Indies has a rule that entails players to feature in a minimum number of domestic matches (regional 4-day competition) to qualify to play in longer formats, including the ODIs. Since none of them fulfilled the criterion due to their busy T20 franchise cricket schedule, they couldn’t play and that hurt Windies badly.
In T20Is, they’ve been allowed to play. “These are players who are massively experienced in T20 cricket. You don’t need to tell them anything. They’ve played more T20s than me,” coach Stuart Law said.
PLAYING FOR PRIDE
The hosts, having been thrashed by India 3-1 in the ODIs will look to restore pride when they take on India in the one-off T20I here on Sunday.
West Indies are the world champions in this format and they have had the better of India in the format, winning four and losing two in seven T20Is.
They’ve won two of the three most recent ODIs.
In the two-game T20I series they played, at Lauderhill in USA last year, Windies eked out a onerun win after posting 245 before the second game was abandoned. Before that, India lost the World T20 semifinal as the eventual champions chased down 192.
What will give India hope is that West Indies haven’t had the best of runs in T20Is recently.
Although they’ve played more T20Is over the last one year --- 12 against India’s five, their only convincing show came against Afghanistan, who they beat 3-0.
They lost six T20Is in the interim to Pakistan winning just one. India, in the meantime, beat England 2-1 in the series at home earlier this year.
To be fair, none of these superstar West Indians are unknown to the Indians.
Chris Gayle has spent more time in the dugout with Virat Kohli at Royal Challengers Bangalore than with any of his teammates, whereas Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine are an integral part of their respective IPL squads.
With Virat likely to open, India will hope that they don’t have to fall back on the fragile middle order. In the last few matches, their main batsman has been KL Rahul apart from Virat. Rahul brought them close to a win in Lauderhill while batting in the middle-order.
However, with him out, the focus will be on the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan to carry on the good work from ODIs to T20Is.