Kieron Pollard explains why West Indies got knocked out of T20 World Cup

It was a disappointing campaign for defending champions West Indies after managing just one win from five games. Their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign came to an end with a comprehensive loss to Australia by eight wickets. In the post-match presentation, skipper Kieron Pollard pointed out the main reason for team’s dismal show in mega event. Pollard said that they missed a player who could play the anchor role in these conditions as they have got plenty of power-hitters.

“Our team is set-up for powerhitters to do a lot of damage but we weren’t able to do that. We have seen in these conditions that one guy in that top four has to bat through, when you get in try and stay as long as possible. It’s hard for the guys to come and hit straightaway. That is something that we need to do better but the good thing is that we have to start from foundation now and that’s the reality of the situation,” the all-rounder said. 

In their first match of the campaign, West Indies were bundled out for 55 by the runner-ups of 2016 edition. In the five matches West Indies played only Shimron Hetmyer and Evin Lewis managed to score one half-century each whereas other batters struggled, especially their X-factor Andre Russell. 

Despite the “disappointing campaign” Pollard said that “these guys have done pretty well” and it cannot be summed up in one tournament. 

“It’s the end of a generation/era where you have some guys who have done some good things for T20 cricket, not only in the Caribbean but around the world. Sometimes one tournament you don’t want to sum up the entire thing when it comes to that but rationally these guys have done pretty well for themselves and we as people are very, very proud. Obviously we need to look at the way we play T20 cricket again,” the 34-year-old expressed. 

Pollard’s comments indicated that there will be a few changes in the approach of West Indies before next year’s T20 World Cup. Dwayne Bravo played his last international game whereas Chris Gayle is unlikely to feature in the next edition which will be played in Australia.