ICC World Twenty20 2012 Preview: West Indies

ICC T20 championships: West Indies

The fire power of Chris Gayle will provide entertainment for fans of cricket the world over.

The West Indies are outsiders for this competition but should not be written off despite a mixed bag of results in this competition, they reached the semi-finals in 2009 and have the potential in the squad to do so again. However, getting through the initial group stage will be no easy task, Australia are undoubtedly favourites to win this group while Ireland, who won the qualifying tournament, should not be underestimated and could cause an upset. Despite a few heavy losses this year the West Indies have achieved success against Australia and more recently against New Zealand. It is without a doubt that to succeed in this competition the West Indies will be reliant on their star performers, the likes of Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine, to put in match winning performances. Narine was recently shortlisted for an ICC award and is an exciting prospect for this T20 campaign though the format often favours the batsman over the bowler meaning that this tournament will no doubt be a test of his skill and mental strength. Chris Gayle is arguably one of the world’s greatest big hitters, at times it seems like this format of the game was designed for the powerful West Indian and the West Indies team will need their big man to step up to the mark.   

The squad will be strengthened by the return of batsmen Darren Bravo who missed the second half of the tour of England and the home series versus New Zealand due to injury. Along with the power of Gayle and the spin of Narine other notable names in the West Indies squad include the all-rounder Darren Sammy who, on his day, can be destructive with both bat and ball and the fiery pace of Fidel Edwards. The West Indies have the talent to do well in this tournament and we predict that they will progress through the group stages but will come unstuck in the super 8 stage of the tournament due to the high standard of teams such as South Africa, England, Australia and India. However, there is one thing that you can guarantee with the West Indies and that is fireworks, the cricket world will be watching with baited breath when Chris Gayle walks out to the middle.

Recent Form

2012 – LWLWW

March 27th: L versus Australia by 8 wickets
March 30th: W versus Australia by 14 runs
June 24th: L versus England by 7 wickets
June 30th: W versus New Zealand by 56 runs
July 1st: W versus New Zealand by 61 runs

Previous Tournament Performances

2007: Eliminated in group stage (defeated by South Africa and Bangladesh)
2009: Semi-Finalists (defeated by Sri-Lanka)
2010: Eliminated in Super 8 stage of the tournament

Tournament Fixtures

WARM-UP
Thursday, Sept 13: vs Sri Lanka - NCC, Colombo
Monday, Sept 17: vs Afghanistan - P Sara Oval, Colombo

FIRST ROUND
Saturday, Sept 22: vs Australia - R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
Monday, Sept 24: vs Ireland - R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Squad

Darren Sammy (Captain), Dwayne Bravo (Vice Captain), Samuel Badree, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin (Wicket-keeper), Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith

John Pryor

© Cricket World 2012