Pollard, Pooran touch down in Auckland a day ahead of 1st T20

WEST INDIES (WI) T20 International (T20I) skipper Kieron Pollard and vice-captain Nicholas Pooran arrive in Auckland, on Wednesday, just one day ahead of the three-match series against New Zealand.

After spending 14-days in quarantine at a managed isolation facility in Christchurch, Pollard, Pooran, Fabian Allen, Sheldon Cottrell, Keemo Paul and Shimron Hetmyer will have little time to acclimatise as the opening fixture gets underway on Friday.

Over the past two weeks, the six cricketers have been working alongside WI assistant coach Trevor Penny while coach Phil Simmons spent the majority of his time in Queenstown with the Test team. Simmons arrived in Auckland on Tuesday.

They all recently returned from stints at the Indian Premier League (IPL) where Pollard’s Mumbai Indians were crowned champions.

Although both WI teams are at different locations, Simmons credited his coaching staff for bearing with these challenges and still being able to manage both teams without any major hiccups.

According to him, preparation hasn’t been ideal but the players and coaching staff have continuously exceeded expectations.

“The group in Christchurch have done a lot of hard work with Trevor Penny. It’s a group of IPL players who know what it’s like to be prepared for a series/tournament. That has made that group a little more committable and it helps me rest a little easy that everything’s been done over there,” he said, on Tuesday, prior to their departure to Auckland.

These six players will link up with fellow teammates T20I Andre Fletcher, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Rovman Powell, Hayden Walsh Jr, Kesrick Williams and Romario Shepherd. Shepherd replaced T20 specialist Dwayne Bravo after the latter suffered a groin injury at the 2020 IPL.

Even though the T20I team was unable to get in any practice matches as a full squad, Simmons is confident his unit has what it takes to put on a valiant fight against the mighty Black Caps. The majority of players were also involved in the July/August Caribbean Premier League in which Pollard also captained the Trinbago Knight Riders to victory.

Of the last seven T20Is played in New Zealand between the pair, the hosts have won six. Altogether, both teams have played each other 13 times in T20, with the Kiwis holding a slim seven to five advantage.

The coach is in Auckland with assistant coaches Penny and Andre Coley while fellow coaching staff Roddy Estwick, Monty Dessai and Rayon Griffith are with the Test squad.

The former WI cricketer also agreed with Fletcher’s recent remarks which dubbed the squad’s ninth place on the International Cricket Council T20I ranking as “imbalanced”.

The men in maroon won the T20 World Cup on two occasions (2012 and 2016) but have been struggling to maintain consistency in the shortest format.

Simmons concluded, “I think imbalance might be the correct word. It’s disappointing to look at the chart and see us where we are. We know, on paper, we’re better than that. We have to make sure we are starting to win series after series in order to get up the table and be ranked number one, where we were years ago.”

WI T20I SQUAD - Kieron Pollard (captain), Nicholas Pooran (vice-captain), Fabian Allen, Romario Shepherd, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Rovman Powell, Keemo Paul, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr, Kesrick Williams