Windies counting on Pollard’s Wankhede experience for series finale, admits Phil Simmons

Kieron Pollard, the name has been associated with IPL’s most successful team Mumbai Indians from 2010. With his ruthless power-hitting and breath-taking athleticism, it makes him one of the most important players of the side. West Indies head coach Phil Simmons revealed that his team will heavily depend on the vital inputs from their skipper for his experience of playing at Wankhede.

"(Kieron) Pollard has played a lot at this venue, the others have not played that much. I think the experience which they have got from here is invaluable and especially the captain (Pollard), as he has been here for 10 years. He knows things inside out and that will definitely help our bowlers mainly, there are a few youngsters in this format. It will definitely help," Simmons said in the pre-match press conference.

West Indies had a decent preparatory time before the series as they faced Afghanistan on the Indian soil and got well accustomed to the conditions.

"I think it (the series against Afghanistan) would help because we've been here for a long time. We tried very hard to keep the (limited-overs) guys here even though there was a Test match on," said Simmons.

West Indies had beaten India in the semi-finals of 2016 T20 WC at Wankhede. With several instances of India failing to defend totals against the Windies that includes the T20 WC semis and more recently the last T20I, Simmons feels they should be prepared to counter any situation.

"A lot has happened since then. But, I think we're confident because of the way we've played in the two games here. Although we lost the first one, we won the second one. The way we prepared, the way we've been playing, that gives me and players confidence. I think you have got to be prepared at the beginning for doing either one of them. If you win the toss you are prepared to do good, whichever one we decide to do tomorrow (match-day). You can lose the toss. I don't worry about the toss too much," WI coach opined.

Pollard replaced Jason Holder and Carlos Braithwaite to become the captain of both, the ODI and T20I. India won the first T20I in Vishakhapatnam by the virtue of their skipper Virat Kohli’s heroics after which the power hitter of Windies sealed a clinical victory in the second. The series is levelled 1-1 and it awaits a thrilling finale on Wednesday.