(SportsMax) West Indies T20 captain, Kieron Pollard, insists the team will resist the impulse to chop and change without giving players enough opportunity to showcase their ability.
The regional team ending up beating Sri Lanka in the first T20 by a fairly comfortable margin, in the end, but things did not always look so straightforward. Overall, a few of the players did not have the expected impact straight out of the gate for the Windies. This was particularly the case with the batting line-up where three players, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran and Fabian Allen were dismissed for ducks.
• In pursuit of the modest target of 131 for 9, the Windies were rocked in the third over by an Akila Dananjaya spell, which saw the dismissal of Evin Lewis, Gayle, and Pooran. Gayle was batting in the unfamiliar third spot, which worked well during this season’s IPL campaign.
• Pollard is adamant he is, however, in no hurry to change things around, particularly after one game. In fact, he believes the practice is one that has hurt the team in the past.
• “If we are honest with ourselves, that’s one of the problems that has plagued us over the years, the constant chopping and changing when things don’t go right after one or two games,” Pollard told members of the media via a Zoom press conference on Thursday.
• “We don’t expect miracles from people. Sometimes you have to give them a chance and opportunities to fulfil what they are trying to achieve and after a period of time you can make a judgment call,” he added.
• “After one game I don’t think we are even thinking of doing any changes or anything like that. We need to get away from the fact that if a guy doesn’t perform, not exclusively using Chris for example, but any individual that has played one or two games, thinking they are not good enough and just be looking to discard them.”
