T20 World Cup: The big-hitting West Indies left-handed batter Nicholas Pooran believes his side has an opportunity to redeem itself through the upcoming 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup and make the fans in the Caribbean proud of the team. Hosting the tournament for the second time at home after the 2010 edition, West Indies will be eyeing to be the first team to win a Men’s T20 World Cup on home soil. But they have had an underwhelming run in the last two editions of the showpiece event.
In 2021, Kieron Pollard-led West Indies failed to enter the knockouts after winning just one game in the group phase. A year later, under Pooran’s leadership in Australia, they couldn’t enter the Super 10 stage, following which the batter stepped down as the side’s skipper.
“We all have grown as players, as teammates as well. When we played in Australia where we didn’t qualify, everyone was hurt. I resigned (from) captaincy after that as well. Everyone was hurt. But we are no longer that group of guys. We all know what’s at stake here. ”
“We all know that we have an opportunity to obviously redeem ourselves, make our cricket fans in the Caribbean and our cricket fans all over the world proud of us [and] happy. This time around we are much better players as well. Most of our guys that play franchise cricket, they understand what is needed to be a professional as well,” Pooran told ESPNCricinfo.
West Indies are co-hosting the tournament with USA, and they enter as the most successful team in the competition’s history with two titles won under Daren Sammy’s leadership in 2012 and 2016. Sammy is now the West Indies’ head coach for the upcoming tournament, where they will be up against Papua New Guinea in Guyana on Sunday.
“Coming back in here after two years, everybody wants to get that special feeling we had when we won those two T20 World Cups. I feel like everybody wants that moment again. They want to be a part of that winning feeling. Doing it in front of our fans is even more special,” added Pooran.
Apart from him captain Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, and Romario Shepherd are the other big-hitters in the West Indies’ line-up, giving it a destructive look. Russell links up with the West Indies team on the back of great form with bat and ball in the Indian Premier League (IPL), playing a major role in Kolkata Knight Riders winning IPL for the third time last week in Chennai.
“He’s a winner. He wins T20 games. He wins tournaments and whenever you have that experience in the dressing room, it helps a lot, especially in a World Cup. Experience is key. We have Rovy (Powell), we have Hetmyer, we have Rutherford, we have Sheppy (Shepherd).”
“These guys have been doing brilliantly for themselves and their franchises and West Indies in the last 12 months. And I even think that takes a lot of pressure off Russell as well. It definitely takes a lot of pressure off me,” concluded Pooran.
