Pooran insists West Indies will be a T20 World Cup threat
West Indies wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran believes the team has the quality to be a threat at the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.
The West Indies are the defending world champions in the format having won the 2016 edition but are currently ranked 10th in the world after a poor run in bilateral series.
West Indies better than T20I ranking
A big part of the Windies’ struggles has been the challenge of getting their best team out on the park with their star players frequently opting to take part in franchise T20 tournaments over T20Is.
Pooran believes that the strongest West Indies team is more than a match for any other international side.
The wicketkeeper, who put in some star turns in the 2020 IPL, has yet to find his best form in international cricket and is hopes to prove himself at the highest level.
“Personally, I am looking forward to the T20 World Cup. As a team, our strength is T20s,” Pooran told ESPN Cricinfo.
“For the last couple of years, we’ve been doing good in World Cups, but as a team where we are ranked [10th], it doesn’t show how good our team actually is.
“Most of the senior guys are coming back to the West Indies team … like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are all coming back eventually. As a player, I am especially excited because I want to do good for the West Indies people and put a smile on their faces. My record for West Indies in T20s isn’t that good and I want to improve that for the next couple of months.”
When asked why the West Indies have underperformed in T20Is recently, Pooran said: “I just believe that most of the series West Indies play, they don’t play with their strongest team. And by strongest I mean Chris Gayle, Pollard, Russell, Narine, Bravo in the team together. In the last couple of years, we haven’t witnessed these players together. Either most of them weren’t selected, some were unavailable … but definitely a case around that. We couldn’t play as a team after the last T20 World Cup. This, I am saying from a player’s and a fan’s point of view. Not seeing some of my favourite players represent West Indies might be one of the reasons.”
The Windies will tour Bangladesh in January and February but will not play any T20Is.