West Indies captain Pollard rubbishes notion of second-string Australia team

CAPTAIN OF the West Indies T20 and One Day International (ODI) squads Kieron Pollard has rubbished the notion that Australia will be fielding second-string teams during their tour of the Caribbean.

The West Indies and Australia will be facing each other in five T20 Internationals at the Darren Sammy Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia from July 9-16, followed by three ODIs at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados from July 20-24.

However, for various reasons, Australia will be without key players such as Steve Smith (injury), Marnus Labuschagne (English county contract), David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson (unavailable).

Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch will have to rely heavily on seasoned campaigners Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade.

During a Zoom media conference on Thursday, Pollard emphasised, “I’m not going to say they are a second-string team. We’re going to play against Australia cricket team.

“It doesn’t matter which personnel,” he added. “They have some world-class players in there. Hopefully, we can come and give out our best.”

The West Indies will be entering this series a week after they were beaten 3-2 by South Africa in a five-game T20 series at the National Cricket Stadium, St George’s, Grenada.

One problem which afflicted the West Indies was the number of dot-balls they racked up (between 30 and 50 in each game).

Pollard said, “We’ve had a high percentage of dot-balls throughout the series, and throughout the series prior to that as well (against Sri Lanka). It has been spoken about. I can assure the guys that we try to not leave any stone unturned.”

The WI skipper continued, “We don’t try to take anything for granted because we have a wealth of experience and a wealth of coaches around who take the time to go into details as to where we need to improve as a team.

“There are a lot of conversations taking place. We can conversate but we still need to put it into practice. Some things might just take longer than some but that’s just the nature of life and human beings.”

Three members of the 18-man WI squad – leg-spinner Hayden Walsh Jnr and the fast-bowling pair of Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell did not play against South Africa.

Asked if there will be more squad rotation against Australia, Pollard responded, “Guys haven’t played. It’s a long stretch of tough games but we still need to come up with the best combination, at any given time, to be victorious.”

The West Indies batsmen, excluding opener Evin Lewis, were inconsistent against South Africa. Shimron Hetmyer scored 57 runs in three innings at an average of 19.0 while fellow left-hander Nicholas Pooran tallied 71 runs at an average of 17.75.

“When (Hetmyer) wasn’t playing, guys were asking for his inclusion,” said Pollard. “Let’s keep him out of the media for two (to) three days and see if he can perform. We have a lot of time for him, and we want him to do well. Just let him play and see if he can reap the reward of his talent.”

With regards to Pooran, Pollard said, “We know he’s talented. In any sportsman’s career, you’re going to go through a period like this, and this is an opportunity for us to be there for these youngsters.

“We’re willing to work with Pooran and (Hetmyer) because we know, in the future, what they can do. We’re going to run with these guys and see what can happen.”

Teams –

WEST INDIES: Kieron Pollard (captain), Nicholas Pooran (vice-captain), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jnr.

AUSTRALIA: Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.