Chase up for anchor role challenge in T20 World Cup

The 2021 Hero Caribbean Premier League’s (CPL’s) most valuable player, Roston Chase, is ready to take up the anchor role challenge in the West Indies T20 team at the upcoming International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) T20 World Cup.
Addressing the media on Thursday, Chase said he sees himself playing that anchor role in a team comprised of big hitters.
“I see myself playing a similar role. It’s a role I played for the St Lucia franchise for the last two years, where I just come in and just knock it around, pick up the ones and twos and get the occasional boundary when the ball is in my area to score. So, it is an easier role for me; I like that role, and with the power-hitting guys we have in this team, my role should be just to give them the strike. But if the ball is in my area, I would put it away,” Chase has said.
In the 2020 CPL, Chase, representing the St. Lucia Zouks, had managed to lead the team in runs throughout the competition, amassing a total of 225 runs at an average of 37.5 in 11 matches. He had two fifties in the process, and also picked up 9 wickets for the franchise. Unfortunately, that franchise lost in the final.
This year, Chase returned to the CPL, and emerged as the top scorer in the entire competition, with 446 runs in 12 matches at an average of 49.55 and an impressive strike rate of 144.33, especially considering his primary role as an anchoring batsman.
Yet to make his T20 debut, Chase is eagerly awaiting his maiden cap. “I would love to be in the first XI. Given the opportunity, it would be very special to make my debut in the first game of the World Cup, and hopefully it happens and I put my best foot forward,” Chase explained.
Giving his opinion on the surfaces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Chase said: “It is just to spend time on each wicket that we play on, but we have had three training sessions so far, and the pitches are coming on pretty well, but the only issue is that they are keeping a bit low.”
West Indies will play their first warm-up match, against Pakistan, on October 18, and will play their first official match of the tournament, against England, on October 23. (Brandon Corlette)