The result has been consecutive defeats to England and South Africa. On Friday, West Indies will look to get their T20 World Cup campaign back on track and keep their semi-final hopes alive when they take on equally troubled Bangladesh in Sharjah. Notably, the Windies batsmen have struggled against spin. In his opening match against England, he was dismissed for 55.
There was slight improvement against South Africa, but it was not enough to make the competition interesting. except Evin Lewis‘ 56 off 35 balls and Pollard’s cameo of 26, didn’t have much to show as the two-time champion scored 143/8 runs on a good surface. Opener Lendl Simmons was guilty of eating the balls at his slow pace of 16 off 35 balls. He did not cover himself with glory even after losing to England by six wickets.
Not just Simmons, the entire West Indies batting unit is yet to gear up for the carnival. As a result, they are looking towards early elimination. like established stars Chris Gayle (13 and 12), Shimron Hetmyer (9 and 1), dwayne bravo (5 and 8*) and Andre Russell (0 and 5) have come with cold bats. Wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran has had his poor run from the IPL.
On tracks that are slow and require the use of skill and mind, West Indies should be smart in assessing the conditions rather than blindly giving in to their natural tendency to go for the big shots. Unless they are regrouped as a unit, even the equally beleaguered Bangladesh will not be easy meat.
Adding salt to West Indies’ wounds is left-arm pacer Obed McCoy’s right-shin injury, which has since been replaced Jason Holder.
Bangladesh are grappling with their own share of trouble after losing to Sri Lanka and England in their two Group A matches. For starters, they have to be quick in the field. One of the main reasons they lost to Sri Lanka by five wickets was their sloppy catching.
Their batsmen also need to fire. Only Mohammad Naeem (62) and Mushfiqur Rahim (57) have topped the fifty in the tournament against Sri Lanka, but their efforts went in vain as Liton Das dropped the catches of Charit Aslanka (80 not out) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (53). . allowed them to put together a match-winning 86-run partnership. Both the teams will expect their bowlers to inculcate discipline and show more awareness to their batsmen if they aspire to go deeper in the competition.
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