By Shashi Agarwal
With the T20 World cup all set to start , here is a look at the defending champions West Indies. After their series draw against Ireland , much was sais about their inability to defend their title . But they fought back against England and silenced their critics. But , it has to be accepted that T20 is quite a different format and to comment on someone’s chances may well not be a wise idea. The uncertainity can be well understood from the fact that no team has yet managed to defend their title.
Here is a look at the balance and composition of the team
Batting
In the batting department, West Indies are blessed with natural hitters of the cricket ball. With the masculine power they have, don’t be surprised to see their miss hits clearing the boundary. The likes of Gayle , Smith, Samuels and co. can single handedly take the game away from any opposition.The man who stands out of all these is Samuels, being someone who can more easily adapt to different situations, unlikely most others in the line up who concentrates on power hitting. He can curb his natural instincts and concentrate on placing the ball and unleash himself at the right time, something he did in the previous T20 World Cup final. It will be interesting to see who keeps the wickets, Ramdin or Jonathon Charles as Charles just adds a bit extra to the batting.
Bowling
They have the likes of Rampaul and Santokie in their pace department with Bravo taking the responsibility of end overs. But the interesting aspect is their spin department, which is arguably the best of the tournament. It is something which separates them from other non-subcontinental teams. Samuel Badree keeps it wicket to wicket an hardly gives away anything while Narine is more an attacking option.With the conditions favouring them, watch out for thes 2 spinners in the tournament.
All rounders
The priceless assets for the Windies are the specialist T20 all rounders. The likes of Sammy , Bravo and Russell are not just clean strikers of the ball but are more than handy with the ball. Bravo has been a master class bowling at the death overs while Sammy’s steady line and length will surely cause problems on slow Bangladeshi tracks. Sammy has recently shown that he is one of the best when it comes to brutal hitting at the end .
Fielding
West Indies have some quality fielders and they are the best in the business when it comes to boundary line fielding. The Carribean players are natural sprinters and have strong throwing arms which helps in cutting down doubles and stop boundaries
So, even in the absence of Pollard , West Indies have all in it to defend their title and create history
