New Delhi: Skipper Kieron Pollard doesn’t mind West Indies’ underdog tag against India and said his team will look to focus on the basics to get a favourable result in the limited-over series beginning Friday.
“We are coming up against a harder opposition, we would be the underdogs and that’s fine but then again it is about going out there and executing and believing in your talent, once you do that anything is possible,” Pollard was quoted as saying by a cricket-specific website.
“There are boxes which need to be ticked off, when you do that, most times you end up on the right side of the result,” added Pollard.
West Indies, the reigning ICC World T20 champions, will begin their tour with the three-match T20I series, the first of which will be played in Hyderabad, December 6.
It will be followed by the second T20I in Thiruvananthapuram (December 8) and the third in Mumbai (December 11).
The two teams will then meet in three ODIs in Chennai (December 15), Visakhapatnam (December 18) and Cuttack (December 22).
The West Indies team recently beat Afghanistan in the ODI series and Pollard said they will work harder to be more consistent. “You must commend the guys on how they worked in the little period of time for the Afghanistan series. It was incredible and it augurs well for us as we go into the future,” Pollard said.
“Success is boring because you have to do same thing over and over again to be consistent and this is something the guys are willing to work on,” added the Windies skipper.
Pollard, who was left out of the West Indies team for some time due to differences with the previous board, said captaincy was something that ‘sprung’ upon me.
“I was playing international cricket for a long period of time. I missed out three or four years. It is no secret what transpired in terms of my relationship with the board and whatever,” Pollard informed.
“Like you dream of playing for the West Indies but you don’t dream of captaining West Indies. But something falls into your lap and again it’s a challenge and I don’t want to shy away from challenges,” added Pollard.
Pollard said he can share his experience with the young players in the dressing room. “And they need the experienced guys also to guide them along so. You know, that’s basically my job. In terms of trying to guide them and set them in the right direction,” Pollard said.
Agencies