Skipper Pooran confident Shai Hope will give West Indies an edge against India

Scene from a previous ODI between West Indies and India (Photo: CWI)

West Indies Captain Nicholas Pooran is confident that the team can rely on big-hitting from Shai Hope for the upcoming match against India.

The West Indies are set to play their first of three white-ball ODIs against India in Trinidad this Friday.

West Indies Captain Nicholas Pooran is confident that Shai Hope will be an asset to the team in the upcoming match.

“Shai just needs to bat like Shai Hope. That’s as simple as it gets. He has the freedom to do what he does best which is just bat and bat. We don’t question how he scores his run. He has the freedom to bat 50 overs. The rest of clubs overseas spoke about him batting, and when he do get set, we know what he’s capable of. He’s averaging 50 plus, so we’re not gonna stress on that.”

After clinching both white-ball series in England, India have rested Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, and Jasprit Bumrah, while KL Rahul is on the recovery path after hernia surgery – according to ESPN Cric Info.

West Indies, on the other hand, are on a six-match losing streak in the format and have one of the worst win-loss ratios in ODI cricket this year.

India have won eight of their last nine matches at the Queen’s Park Oval. The other game was washed out.

Since January 2021, West Indies have batted the first 12 times in ODI cricket; on nine occasions, they failed to last their full allocation of overs. Jason Holder is back with the squad after being rested for the Bangladesh series.

The West Indies and India series is not part of the World Cup Super League, with both teams finishing their 50-over assignments less than a week ago.

However, Pooran still wants to see a good fight from the cricketers as they build toward next year’s World Cup.

“For me, I just wanna see the guys continue to fight with bat and ball. I feel like the last one, the game against Bangladesh, in tough conditions, obviously, we tried our best, and we felt like we had a chance to win the game, and we almost did. For this India series, it’s just for us to dig deep and fight as long as we possibly can. And you never know, if we can stay in the fight as long as possible, things can happen for us.”

Keemo Paul did not bowl in the final ODI against Bangladesh after sustaining a hamstring injury. As of now, Pooran says doctors are still monitoring his conditions, and it is unclear whether he will be fit to play on Friday.