West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran said that the team is hoping to play exciting cricket in their upcoming limited overs series against India and said that challenging their opposition will send a message across the world.
The two teams will be playing a three-match ODI series starting on July 22 followed by a five-match T20I series which starts on July 29.
Although the West Indies team won the Test and T20 series against the visitors Bangladesh In Recently concluded, but Caribbean Side repeatedly showed the weakness of the ODI format.
So, West Indies are going through a tough time right now, losing both back-to-back ODIs against Pakistan and Bangladesh in humiliating fashion.
The West Indies were facing this crisis even before captain Nicholas Pooran became the white-ball captain. Pooran tells TOI that West Indies are looking for the right mindset in ODIs.
“We are trying to find out the right mindset for ODI cricket. Once we get that, we will be fine, but now it’s about forming a template for each format.”
The Indian team had a great ODI and T20I series win against the mighty England. West indies Skipper continued,
“We are looking forward to the series and our aim is to be competitive and play exciting cricket. We will look to put our best foot forward.”
Indian Stars Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah will be absent from the Indian ODI squad this time and Shikhar Dhawan will lead the side. Pooran, however, feels that India cannot be taken for granted even if the strong, mature Indian players are not joining the ODI series, he said.
“They have millions of players who can come and do that role.”
The captain added that the aim is to be competitive and play with passion.
“We are looking forward to the series and our aim is to be competitive and play exciting cricket. We will look to put our best foot forward.”
As well as,
“They have match-winners with bat and ball and we can come out and challenge them here and Florida. it will send a message across the cricket world. And it will be fabulous for us as a group as well,”
The Twenty20 World Championship is also scheduled to be held later this year. Accordingly, he believes that these few T20 matches will be a very good rehearsal and He also said that the team has to play qualifying matches and it is a blessing in disguise.
“We put ourselves in that position as a team, but that is okay, it happens. We were in a rebellion phase and now we have to start over. It’s a blessing in disguise that we will have to play the qualifiers. We have a series there and then the qualifiers will give us enough time to acclimatize ourselves to the conditions Down Under.”
And,
“I am enjoying my role and I am doing some bowling too. The guys are supporting me 100% and we can do wonderful things.”