The ICC T20 World Cup 2022 will be held in Australia next month and the West Indies squad was named the other day it was a controversial squad among many. The reason for that was the removal of several players from the squad and the recall of several players.
Accordingly, legendary West Indies bowler Sir Andy Roberts, who joined the Mason and Guest Cricket Radio program in Barbados on Tuesday evening, questioned the removal of Hayden Walsh Jr and several other players for the ICC T20 World Cup.
He also mentioned that his hope is to see the West Indies team win the trophy, but it is a very difficult task for this team to reach the final stage.
“I would love us to win the World Cup but getting to the final stages might be a little more difficult than we think,”
Also, he further mentioned that he heard about the team that played since January that it is the best team wi has. However, a large part of that team did not qualify for the World Cup and Robo questioned the effect of taking them to other tournaments.
“That is my problem. I keep hearing these are the best players that we have. We have been playing since January – we are getting an endless amount of T20 cricket – but a large part of the team that you used then is not going, so what was the point of carrying these guys to five or six different tournaments and now you can’t find space for them!?”
Roberts said,
“So… these are the guys who should be in the squad. The majority are not there. I was looking forward to Hayden Walsh Jr. You may get more bounce in Australia than you get here and he is going to save you 20-30 runs per game and that is very important because our batters may not be able to get 20 or 30 runs.”
He also questioned why three left-arm seamers. Also, he is there
“The make-up of that team – you have three left-arm seamers: Cottrell, (Raymon) Reifer and (Obed) McCoy. What are we doing with three left-arm seamers?”
Furthermore, Alzzari is the only one who has the pace to trouble the top-order bowlers and the others will rely on their craft, including the slower balls, to fool the opposition batsmen.
Another problem with the current WI unit, Robert says, is the constant change of bowlers in the line-up.
“So (it seems like) we don’t have a plan to go forward.”
However, in recent years, Windies’ fielding has been high and Roberts pointed out that batting and bowling are still very poor. He also believed that spinner Akeal should play a more attacking role for Trinbago Knight Riders with the new ball than he did in the previous matches of the 2022 CPL.
“I think they are depending too much on him for containment,…I think he is most dangerous with the new ball because the new ball slides on. We also need another bowler who can bowl at 150 kph and we will see the difference in the team.”
Also, Sir Robert answered about Sunil Narine and Roberts revealed that he has no concern about not selecting Sunil Narine who said that he has no interest in playing international cricket.