After a tragic end to their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 play-in campaign, Nicholas Pooran is confident that the West Indies can “redeem themselves” by going all the way and lifting the trophy at home this time.
Pooran was the captain of Windies in the previous edition and had to resign after the fiasco. However, the southpaw believes that the West Indies players who are part of the World Cup squad have recovered from the defeat.
“We have all grown as players and also as teammates,” Pooran told ESPNcricinfo. “When we played in Australia and didn’t qualify, everyone was hurt. After that, I also resigned as captain. Everyone felt the injury. But we’re not that group of guys anymore.
“We all know what is at stake. We all know that we have a chance to redeem ourselves, to make our cricket fans in the Caribbean and cricket fans around the world proud (and) ecstatic of us. We are also much better players this time, most of our guys who play franchise cricket also understand what it takes to be a professional.”
Elated by West Indies’ recent 3-0 series win over South Africa at home, Pooran is confident that the players are ready to give 100% on the field and want to put the team first over themselves.
“If you look at the series we played against South Africa, we are missing a few players, but we managed to win that series 3-0,” Pooran mentioned. “You saw the performances, you saw the guys fighting and that’s really critical. We may win, we may not win, but what is more critical for me, also as a senior player, is that we have to give 100% off the pitch.
“It’s not about us, it’s about our team, 100%. It’s critical to me to continue to share this message: that it’s not about me or us. It’s not about us at all. It’s just about what we can do for this team to finally be successful.”
