Wounded West Indies aiming to bounce back in second T20I against India
Nicholas Pooran and his West Indies side will be aiming to bounce back in the second T20 International against India, to be played on Monday, August 1, in St Kitts and Nevis.
After the first T20 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Pooran said, the men in maroon are hurt, but this is the first of five games, and returning strong in the second match is high on their agenda.
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran
“Disappointed as a team. The crowd here has been absolutely amazing, and we have disappointed them. The players have been feeling very hurt, but this is the first game of the T20 Series and we will look to bounce back,” Pooran has said.
West Indies were “behind the overs” while bowling, and Pooran noted that the side was undisciplined. “Yes, it was. In 18 overs, it was 150, we were undisciplined and we paid the price, and the guys know that. 190 was always going to be challenging,” Pooran explained.
The West Indies made 122-8 in 20 overs, and the highest score was 20, which came from the bat of Shamarh Brooks.
Voicing his opinion on the batting performance, the West Indies captain has said: “We got a good start, but the batters did not carry on. We lost wickets every time we had some momentum, and that cost us. We had already lost four wickets in the first ten overs, and that cost us the game.”
West Indies are without the services of left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie. In the first T20I against India, West Indies played one spinner, the left-arm Akeal Hosein, who impressed with his good spell. Pooran has said the West Indies decided to play an extra all-rounder to chase down a total of around 180.
“In hindsight, when you look at it, the spinners did bowl well. Out mindset was to restrict them to 170-180; with the extra allrounder, we would have been able to chase it,” Pooran said.
India’s squad for the five T20Is: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
West Indies T20 Squad: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Rovman Powell (Vice Captain), Shamarh Brooks, Dominic Drakes, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Devon Thomas and Hayden Walsh Jr. (Brandon Corlette)