With the sudden departure of former captain Kieron Pollard from international cricket, wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran has been appointed captain of the West Indies. His first task was against the Netherlands, which ended in a 3-0 victory for the West Indies.
Pooran wasn’t too concerned about his own form coming into the series. He had a high score of 10 in three innings in the Netherlands, even though there were four centuries and four fifties from his team-mates.
He was out all three times to off spinner Aryan Dutt in that series, but despite that, Pooran felt batting against spin remained one of his strongest suits. In the 1st Match against Pakistan he scored 21 off 16 balls.
Pooran, commenting to The Nation From Pakistan,
“No, I’m fine, this is not the first time I haven’t scored runs,” he said.
Pooran Play with new players without the senior players Jason Holder, Shimron Hetmeyer and Evin Lewis. However, Pooran said he was happy to work with a group of young players.
“At the end of the day, you want to win. Doesn’t matter whether you have an experienced team or not. Everyone wants to win and have a happy dressing room.”
He said Pollard’s departure was unexpected. However, he says he has enough experience to lead and the team needs to be put together and put on the right track.
“Obviously, it is unexpected that ‘Polly’ gave up the captaincy. But it is also important to not make any excuses. I feel like I have enough experience now, and it’s just about getting the guys together and trying to go in the right direction.”
Pooran is no stranger to captaincy, having led Australia to a 4-1 victory in their home Twenty20 series against Australia before last year’s World Twenty20.
“I learnt that togetherness is key, and respect. Team plans helped us win against Australia last year and that’s something we want to continue, getting good plans and trying our best to execute. If we don’t, fine. We will review and go again.”
He was the wicketkeeper for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL. He faced young fast bowler Umran Malik for months. Pooran said Alzzari Joseph would bowl similarly to him.
“Umran Malik was wonderful to see. Being there, seeing someone bowl at 156, 157 [kph] consistently at a young age was wonderful. But also seeing Alzarri Joseph go about the way he did was impressive.”
West Indies fast bowler Alzzari Joseph impressed by bowling for the Gujarat Titans at more than 150 kmph during IPL 2022. He has made steady progress in all formats since his debut in 2016, but has made a huge leap in this year’s Indian Premier League.
“Getting his speed up to 150 consistently. we want to see Alzarri being consistent for us as well. Since the last ODI World Cup Alzarri has been tremendous for us. I think he is one of the leading fast bowlers in the world in ODI cricket and he continues to prove himself. I am very happy to have him in our team and looking forward this year to see how he goes about winning game for us and giving us the energy and momentum.”
It will be quite a task for the West Indies to automatically qualify for the 2023 World Cup, with only the top eight teams having direct access to the 2023 World Cup in India. But he does not think so far ahead.
“I am not really thinking about qualification. We got ourselves in this position. Now we need to work harder to get into the World Cup. It’s not a weight on my shoulders. That’s also good for us a team. If we want to be in a World Cup, we need to work really hard and that will get us closer as a unit.”