Latest update April 17th, 2025 8:39 PM
Jun 26, 2021 Sports
Kaieteur News – West Indies T20 skipper Kieron Pollard said it’s important that they create a winning culture as they take on South Africa in the opening match of the CG Insurance T20 International Series at the National Cricket Stadium in Grenada today.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday, Pollard said they are trying to pick the best team and noted his guys are confident ahead of the first match.
“We are confident going into the series; we would have played against some of these guys already. We are focused on one game at a time. It’s important we create that’s sort of wining culture, we hope the preparation helps us and we can start the series well and hopefully win it.”
The World champions are currently ranked at Number 10, but Pollard is not too concerned about that. “There are different things that happened from the last world cup winning team in 2016 to now and that‘s why we are ranked at no.10. For me I don’t look much into that, it’s about how we play our cricket and how we want to play going ahead. So we are focused on getting the right combination.”
Pollard said they are looking to play some good cricket and improve from their last series against Sri Lanka.
“One thing about South Africa is that they are ahead of us, they are confident, some of the guys may have played in the test series and they beat so they are coming full of confidence. We have started on the back foot as well but that’s fine, however we are looking forward to play good cricket and to improve on what we started in the last series against Sri Lanka,” he added.
Pollard stated that it’s important that they understand the situation and what is needed.
“Our strength is no secret, it’s our power hitting ability and we will continue to harness our strength and work on our weaknesses. We are trying to improve as a team and as individuals, but we are also working on certain things like rotating the strike. It’s about understanding the situation and what is needed,” he pointed out.
He indicated that they have certain plans as to what they are looking for and to have that feeling of winning more often than not rather than squad rotation. “We want the guys to get comfortable in positions in playing their role and actually be accountable, keep everything positive and take it from there. It’s always good to come out on the winning side. It’s for the guys to execute and hopefully we can build on the Sri Lanka series going into the world cup.”
The skipper said that young Kevin Sinclair has been gelling well, while noting that the guys who are out might have a chance getting in as well.
Guyanese Shimron Hetmyer was left out of the squad for the first two games but Pollard said they are always willing to help him in achieving his goals.
“We have been having those sort of conversations as to what we expect from Hetmyer, we know what some of his goals are and we are always willing and ready to help him in that aspect. As an individual in anything that you do you need to want it more than anything else. Our conversation has been good, our camaraderie has been fantastic so it’s just a matter of giving him the opportunities and him coming out and shows what he is made of.”
Pollard added that Sunil Narine has indicated that he is still not ready but their main focus is what we have at present and get ready for the world cup.
Meanwhile, fully vaccinated fans will be able to buy tickets for the game from the stadium box office and ticket booths on presentation of their vaccination documentation and their national ID, with tickets available at EC$50 per match.
Fans in the Caribbean can watch live on Flow Sports or via the Flow Sports app. Live radio commentary is available on the Windies Cricket YouTube channel and on a number of local radio stations across the Caribbean. Fans also follow live ball by ball scoring in the www.windiescricket.com live match centre, featuring the new live match blog.
See here for full match schedule https://www.windiescricket.com/fixtures/
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