Despite possessing firepower in abundance, Windies' inconsistency with the bat could hamper their WT20 defense 

They win championships, they dance, they hit big shots, they provide drama, substance, flair, collapses and are everything that a blockbuster box-office movie looks like. But above all, they are a bunch of quality cricketers who nail the format than any other country, even with a plethora of freelancers. And if there's one thing that has played a differentiator for them to end up with two T20 World Cup wins, more than any other side, it has been their fiery batting, with each and everyone in their line-up good enough to win games on his day. 

As we can see, barring Andre Fletcher, no one has been able to even average 30 or more. In the period, West Indies' batting has averaged a poor 19.60, the second-worst for any side among the top ten nations in T20 internationals. Horrendous by champion standards, eh? Even their strike-rate has been 130.09, which makes up for the third-worst in the world. West Indies have invariably suffered collapses, while the batters who have got starts have not been able to convert. 

Out of eight games, their batting has undergone some sort of collapse in six of them. When it comes to conversion, there have been only two half-centurions from West Indies in the period, which is again the lowest for any side.

Now, we shall dig a little deeper and see how they have done in different phases and how they fare against pace and spin. Let's start with their displays in different phases of the game:

This bit of stat is pretty revealing. West Indies have done a great job in terms of the first six overs as they score 53.8 runs on average in the powerplay. Their average is also decent. However, their middle-overs performance has 'DISASTER' written all over it. They have the second-worst average and strike-rate among the top nations in the world. It shows how poorly the middle-order has performed for them. When it comes to death, their average is again worst in the world with the strike-rate being third-worst among all the top-nations, which is expected too if the middle-order doesn't click.

Pollard was right in his assessment when he stated post the third game that Windies have failed to convert starts and have played a lot of dots. Three middle-order players have played five or more games in the period - Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder - and they have played a lot of dots in overs between 7-15 (middle-phase). Pollard's dot-ball percentage has been 49.2%, which rises to 61.9% this year. While Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder have faced 40.7% and 39.1% dot-deliveries respectively. One common aspect between the top-five run-getters in the middle-overs phase in the time-period -  Glenn Phillips (31.6%), Mohammed Rizwan (26.1%), Dawid Malan (29.9%), Devon Conway (26.4%), and Babar Azam (24.2%) - has been their lower dot-ball percentage. No wonder the West Indies middle-order has suffered.

Now, this is what you call an eye-opener. The biggest issue hovering around the batting line-up has been their inability against spin as we see the disparity between the numbers against both disciplines. To top that, and classify further, wrist-spin has been the biggest vulnerability for the Pollard-led side. Against wrist-spin of any kind, they have accumulated 156 runs off 220 balls, lost 20 wickets, averaged 7.80 with a strike-rate of 70.91, which is simply unacceptable, to cut it short.

One of the possible reasons that has resulted in such mediocre displays could be a lack of continuity. As many as nine players have featured in the middle-order in eight games thus far. And it can be unsettling. The players haven't played together for a long time and suddenly, when they start rubbing shoulders, it can be perplexing to play the role assigned by the team management and for everything to fall in sync together. For instance, Andre Russell is playing for the first time in T20 internationals in over a year while the third game against the Proteas was Shimron Hetmyer's first T20I in 2021. 

West Indies have also lacked clear-cut game plans and at times have gone on either side of the extremes - my way or the highway. They have got these crazy 50-plus starts well inside four overs to only lose wickets in a bunch later. Also, the batters have failed to take responsibility to consolidate starts or to take the side past the finishing line, which has often resulted in defeats.