‘No words to describe what he has done for us in the T20 World Cups’: Pollard hails Gayle

West Indies’ white-ball captain, Kieron Pollard came out in full support of Chris Gayle ahead of the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Despite his recent record, Gayle has been named in the West Indies T20 World Cup side.

Gayle scored only 193 runs in 10 matches for Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and 165 runs in 9 matches in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) this year. As a result, former West Indies fast bowler Curtly Ambrose had criticized Gayle's selection in the West Indies squad, citing his poor form. 

However, Pollard has backed his teammate saying that he can still give bowlers nightmares and his ambition is to win the T20 World Cup again.

"No words to describe what he has done for us in the T20 World Cups and T20 cricket around the world. The guy with most sixes, most runs, the fear he instils in bowlers. The main goal for him is to win the World Cup and he is looking forward to doing that," Pollard said at the captain's call event of International Cricket Council.

Furthermore, because they already have a lot of power hitters on their side and are seeking to play total cricket, Pollard stated that they must focus on their weaknesses, such as rotating the strike.

"Everything is important, but we still have to play to our strengths. We need to keep our strengths as strengths and work on our weaknesses. We have a lot of powerful guys in the line-up, but if the situation warrants, we also have guys who can manoeuvre strike, run between the wickets. We look forward to playing complete games of cricket," the all-rounder added.

The defending champions are placed in Group A which has been termed as 'group of death' along with Australia, England, South Africa and two qualifying teams from round 1. They will begin their T20 World Cup campaign on October 23 against the 2016 runner-ups, England, whom they had defeated in the final of the 2016 event at Eden Gardens.