West Indies carry the potential to be champions or blowouts

Such is the reputation of the West Indies squad that they enter the T20 World Cup esteemed among the favourites despite poor recent form.

They are drawn in a group alongside England, Australia, an in-form South Africa and two Asian nations who are tournament dark horses in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

With the names they have in their group, the West Indies could steamroll right over all their opponents, equally, on current form it is not outside the realm of possibility that the West Indies could lose all five matches and go home with their tails between their legs.

The West Indies need their big name players to fire on all cylinders to do well in this tournament but many of them aren’t best placed to perform at their best.

The injury to Andre Russell was a big blow as was the withdrawal of Fabian Allen, both players offer a lot with bat and ball and give the playing XI a different balance.

The Windies have a very good, if somewhat underrated bowling attack with some handy spinners and world-class quicks in their ranks but their seemingly stacked batting lineup hasn’t consistently delivered in recent matches.

West Indies match-winners off their game

Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis and Shimron Hetmyer are all potential match-winners but they are all struggling for form.

Gayle has been fired up by some pre-tournament comments from Curtly Ambrose, which often coaxes the best out of the Universe Boss but the Windies legend might have had a point regarding the veteran left-handers place in the team.

Roston Chase offers stability but not a great deal of fireworks and there is a potential for the West Indies to leave skipper Kieron Pollard with a lot to do as the finisher.

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Pollard’s tremendous talent and unbelievable power means that he might actually pull off a few big finishes that get the West Indies deeper into the tournament.

The match-winning quality and reputations make for impressive reading, but if they can’t string things together in a tournament that promises to be a tricky one for batsmen, the T20 World Cup could end in disappointment for the defending champions.

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