West Indies Team Preview

Best Odds for Windies to Win

In terms of online betting, the West Indies are available at odds of 13.0 with Betway. That makes them seventh favourites to win in Australia and those odds look about right to us.

They certainly don’t deserve to be among the favourites based on their performance last time out or on their results since the World Cup in the UAE.

But they’re a talented bunch with some big hitters and in the unlikely event that they can gel as a unit, they could be dangerous on their day.

But remember they’ll need to get through the qualifying round with Zimbabwe, Scotland and Ireland in their group before playing in the tournament proper.

Windies’ T20 World Cup Performance

West Indies Performance at the 2021 World Cup 

Before a ball was bowled, the feeling was that the West Indies’ policy of fielding so many all-rounders could go one of two ways.

Great balance to the side and a good run in the tournament, or a lack of specialists meaning no one was too sure of their role within the side.

In the end, it was very much the latter.

In their first match, they were bowled out for just 55 in 14.2 overs against England, one of the weakest batting displays ever seen at a T20 World Cup.

Then they posted a sub-par total against South Africa and lost, before falling 20 runs short in the chase of a good total by Sri Lanka.

They ended their campaign with another defeat, this time at the hands of Australia, who chased their total with almost four overs to spare.

Their one win came against a poor Bangladesh side and even then, the Tigers would have won the game had they found a boundary off the last ball.

So they ended with just one win from five, finishing fifth out of six teams.

It was the end of the road for the likes of Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmon, Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell.

West Indies Performance at the 2016 T20 World Cup

They won it! In doing so they became the first side to win more than one World T20 Cup after they’d also won it back in 2012.

It was a brilliant West Indies performance we witnessed at the last World Cup where they beat the two other best sides in the competition in back-to-back matches; first India in the semi and then England in the final.

Before that they had topped a group that had England and South Africa that included a superb win over England in a high chase where Chris Gayle got 100. What followed were two absolute classics.

In the semi, India set the Windies 193 to win, a monster total that looked near on impossible when the Windies lost early wickets. But Lendl Simmons, playing his first game of the tournament, scored a brilliant unbeaten 82 off 51 after riding his luck with a series of dropped catches and wickets off no balls. A fast 43 off 20 from Andre Russell then got Darren Sammy’s side close to the line and eventually over it to seal a fantastic chase under the utmost pressure.

Captain: Nicholas Pooran

In theory, being handed the West Indies captaincy of both the ODI and T20I teams after Kieron Pollard gave them up and retired from international cricket, should have made this a year to savour for Nicholas Pooran.

But so far, it hasn’t been.

He had a quiet IPL for the Sunrisers Hyderabad after they paid big money for him.

And as captain of his country, he led them in 11 T20I matches, his side winning just four out of 12, losing six, with one no-result.

And he hasn’t really performed with the bat, either.

He’s batted everywhere between opening and Number Six but hasn’t found the best position for himself and the team so far.

An average of 27 from just under 70 T20Is doesn’t reflect his potential as a player, though his strike rate of 130 is pretty good.

All of which means there will be a lot of responsibility on his shoulders both as skipper and batsman at the World Cup (it remains to be seen if he’ll keep wicket, as well) and all in all, this World Cup will be a huge test for him.