Windies not distracted by T20 World Cup – Skipper

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, (CMC):

WEST INDIES captain Rovman Powell said his side would not be distracted by next year’s Twenty20 World Cup but would continue their quest for improvement by winning the ongoing five-match series against England.

Under Powell, appointed skipper last February in the wake of last year’s T20 World Cup qualification fiasco in Australia, West Indies are unbeaten after winning their last two series against South Africa and India.

On Tuesday night, they took a huge stride towards another series win with a four-wicket victory over England at Kensington Oval, but Powell said West Indies were not yet thinking about a World Cup bid.

“A lot of people look as far as the World Cup, but we aren’t at the World Cup yet – so many things can happen before we reach the World Cup,” Powell said.

“Our focus is now on Grenada, trying to get our combinations right. There are still some areas in the team that are of concern, and we’re just trying to fix them series by series, and hopefully, in six months’ time when we reach the World Cup, we’re in a good space.”

West Indies bowled out England for 171 with three balls remaining, with the recalled Andre Russell claiming three for 19 and fellow fast bowler Alzarri Joseph three for 54.

Russell, in his first T20 International in two years, returned to lash a 14-ball unbeaten 29 to complete a Man-of-the-Match effort as he helped fire West Indies to victory with 11 balls to spare.

Despite being thrilled with the result, Powell said there were areas in his side’s game that still needed to be addressed.

“I think there is still room to grow, still a lot of improvement [to make]. We have areas [we can improve],” Powell explained.

“In those series that we [won], we haven’t controlled the power-play particularly well in all the series.

“We have this game or another game where we do well in the power-play, but we just want to try our best to make it an effort to control that power-play.

“And once we can control that power-play, a lot of teams don’t have a lot of power-hitters, so they will always be on the back foot trying to catch up in the back end.”

Since assuming the captaincy, Powell has enjoyed a decent run of form with an average of 44 and said he had not allowed the leadership role to affect his batting.

“I try not to be a captain when I’m batting. The role of captain itself is pressuring, so I just try to be a batter first and then whatever comes after comes after,” he explained.

“I’m just a captain whenever I’m off the field or whenever I’m setting the field, but apart from that, I just try to focus on playing my natural game.”