IND vs WI | Playing against No.1 team, not individuals, is main focus, claims Kieron Pollard

After a series loss against Afghanistan, West Indies walk into the India series with some setbacks including Chris Gayle and Andre Russell. Newly appointed West Indies skipper Pollard is positive about playing against the best team in the world in their own den and is not focussing on individuals for the same. He, instead, wants to use the team’s experience of playing in India and channel that to help the team get back to winning ways. 

"We have played a lot in India, so it is just a matter of using that experience and trying to win matches here. At the end of the day, we are here to play, we have prepared well and hopefully we show a good performance tomorrow," Pollard said, ahead of the 1st T20I, as quoted by New Indian Express.

Besides the spin threat, that includes Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, the visitors would also have to face the world-class pace-bowling attack. Pollard believes it’s a good thing that the team will get to tackle the best in the world.

"Indian pace attack has been doing really well. They are the number one team, it is a good opportunity for us to face the number one ranked side, we cannot take much into that and we need to do our thing. We need to try to find ways to tackle the attack. We are not focused on individuals," claimed Pollard.

Earlier in August, India dominated the Windies in the Caribbean in all the three formats. And now West Indies are sporting an even younger side. Pollard believes that youngsters need to be backed to make them feel comfortable in the international arena. 

"We need to back these young guys as we have seen their talent and attitude. Exciting times ahead for the youngsters, we have a lot of young talent, it is just about easing them into the world of international cricket. Sometimes you need to be honest with yourselves and protect them from the vultures who are out there to bring them down," he said.

Speaking about the young replacements to experienced cricketers, Pollard has backed the decision is sure that like-to-like replacement was never on their mind. He reminded that the team should be able to move on when the seniors are not available.

"You do not want to have players trying to fill in the gaps of senior players. For us, Russell, Narine and Bravo are big gaps, but as a team, we have selected 15 players to do a job here," Pollard said.

"We back each and every player, when these senior players become available for selection, we can have a discussion about it. It is what it is, we have moved on from that and we know the reasons why they are not here," he added.