ICC Champions Trophy team preview: West Indies

The ICC Champions Trophy, also called the mini World Cup, is just around the corner as the inaugural match sees the two big boys of the game clash on June 6 in Wales – India and South Africa. This article though, is about the team who find themselves in the same group with these two teams – West Indies.

The men from Caribbean are considered to be the dark horses for the championship given their recent form in the limited-over format of the game, and will be looking to upset the big boys in their bid to reclaim the trophy which they won in 2004 at Lord’s, defeating England. West Indies have always done well when they have played a multi-nation tournament in UK, given all their major three successes in the ODI format have come on the shores of UK. The team is led by the experienced all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who took over the captaincy from Darren Sammy, but will face a major test at the very first hurdle as he begins his full time captaincy tenure.

Strengths:

Looking at their squad, one can easily make out they are going all out both in batting and bowling department. While they will rely on the explosiveness of Chris Gayle at the top, they have the experience of Marlon Samuels and Ramnaresh Sarwan to bank on. The middle-order is provided the solidity by the Darren Bravo – whose cover drives reminds one of great Brian Lara. Thus, batting already looks formidable and Caribbean fans will be quietly confident of a very good show.

On to their bowling, it seems Ottis Gibson has got a great mixture of fiery pace and controlled seam bowling as they have picked up 4 very good fast bowlers. When it comes to fiery pace, there are few around the world who are quicker than Tino Best. He crosses the 90 mph mark at will and on his day, can even crank it up to 95 mph. The only downside with that sort of pace is that he loses the direction and can go for plenty of runs. Backing the opening combination of Kemar Roach and Best will be the reliable back-of-length bowler, Ravi Rampaul, who will be entrusted the task of keeping the runs down and chip in with wickets. Then there are these mercurial trio in Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy to bank on if their specialists disappoint the team. All in all, West Indies do look perfect limited-overs team who can surely upset one or two favourites.