West Indies and their World Cup prospects

15 Men World Cup Squad:

Jason Holder(c), Marlon Samuels (vc), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Jonathan Carter, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Jerome Taylor.

Strengths:

One look at the West Indies squad always makes us wonder why this team does not figure among the top 4 teams in world cricket. With the resources they have in the form of some phenomenal all-rounders such as Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard (the latter 2 not included in the world cup squad) as well as some mighty hitters of the cricket world like Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith, its immensely surprising to believe that they perform the way they actually do. Their biggest asset is the versatility of their team and the match winners they possess. If on any given day, one of their players performs with his true prolificacy, he can win the match almost single handedly for the team. One of their strengths is a strong sense of team spirit. They relish their time on the field and appear to have a great bonding as a team as well.

Weakness:

With two of their experienced all-rounders, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, not in the 15 men squad for some reason, the team is put in an unfavorable position. They gave an upper hand to the lower middle order and in their absence West Indies batting gives the impression of being shabby. They have not been able to put up challenging scores or chase down totals too well and this is evident from their 4-1 loss to South Africa. While their batting is experiencing disapproval, there are no words to describe their bowling performances as well. With both Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree out due to suspected actions, their bowling attack has really been dented and their fast bowling department lacks experience. Their bowlers appeared to be all over the place in the series against South Africa and seem to be putting on a lot of pressure on their coach. The South African batsmen managed to make a laughing stock out of their bowlers almost throughout the series.

Opportunities:

Although their performances leading to the world cup haven’t been very promising, yet one can never count them out completely. “Who knows? You just need 3 games to go in your favor and you are the world cup champions,” as quoted by Rahul Dravid. Sulieman is a decent spinner and with a height of 6 feet 7 inches, he can perfectly use the bouncy pitches of Australia if only he is able to play the ball in the right area.

Like Rohit Sharma is to the Indian cricket team, the West Indies team is to world cricket. In spite of the fact that the team is blessed with exuberant talent, one can’t help but wonder the reason behind the inconsistent act of this team. They do manage to surprise you every once in a while with the astounding potential they possess with a special performance.

 

Threats:

West Indies would surely be yearning for some of their key players and with some inexperienced players in their squad who have rarely played at international level, it would be an uphill task for the Caribbean team to make a mark in the World Cup this time around. Another setback for them is the ongoing problems between the WICB and its players regarding the payment issues which has created a state of unrest within the team.

The West Indies team doesn’t look impressive enough to be considered as the title contenders, nevertheless, that’s what the team is used to. Being the underdogs, they have always managed to go a long way in major tournaments. Even so, as of now their chances do not come across as too significant bearing in mind their recent performances.