Left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn should never have been selected for the World Cup in Australia starting this February. Instead, Jermaine Blackwood should have been in the squad to enhance the batting. Blackwood is a brilliant fielder and a prolific athlete. His batting style carries a great combination of defense and attack and exposing Blackwood in Australia would have been good for the right-hander to develop his cricket.
West Indies all-rounders have to perform to the top of their game for the West Indies to proceed into the final round. These 11 players are about the best the selectors can choose presently to represent the West Indies:
Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Jason Holder, Jerome Taylor and Sheldon Cottrell.
HOLDER’S CAPTAINCY UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Jason Holder’s captaincy will be closely monitored when the World Cup begins in February. He needs to take charge and develop a better field setting. He must also put more pressure on any new batsman that comes to the wicket by moving bowlers around and bringing new bowlers into the attack. The pressure on bowlers being over worked. West Indies have many bowlers that participated in One-Day international games and that experience must be utilized proficiently.
WEST INDIES MUST FOCUS MORE ON LAST 20 OVERS
West Indies World Cup strategy should be to avoid losing too many wickets, too early in their innings and score heavily from the last 20 overs. Dwayne Smith can easily slide down the order and bring Denesh Ramdin to start with Chris Gayle followed by Darren Bravo and possibly Andre Russell. Having Smith, Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy in the middle order, should create enough fireworks to light up the West Indies innings. Changes must be made and brave intelligent decisions are needed in order for the team be successful.
NOTE: West Indies batsmen need to show much more dedication to their tasks.
