The West Indies is one team that seems to have cracked the code for the T20 format. But there is something that hasn’t gone their way this time around. Something that has dangerously hampered their campaign. The team has lost all hopes for qualifying for the playoff matches. And this sounds more disheartening as the team had entered the tournament as favorites. Here is a look at the possible reasons why West Indies got knocked out of the tournament in the Super 12s: –
Slow Pitches in the UAE: –
The pitches in the UAE seemed extremely slow due to the wear-down during the IPL. The IPL matches were played on the 3 grounds in the UAE and the 3 pitches experienced an extreme overload. The slow pitches didn’t favor the West Indies and their ball strikers. The Caribbean Kings have the habit of timing the ball and scoring runs but that wasn’t the case this time. The ball was getting trapped on the pitch and turning square. The ball was not coming on the bat and timing was difficult.
Inability to Counter Spin Bowling: –
“Spin Bowlers” have been the most dominant in the tournament. You look at Pakistan or England or New Zealand, any successful team has had a good set of spinners. The inability of the West Indian Batsman to play spin got supremely exposed in this T20 World Cup. In the first match of the tournament itself, the Windies got bundled out for 55 runs falling prey to the trap of Rashid and Moeen Ali. Apart from Kieron Pollard and Shimron Hetmeyer, the ability to attack the spinners was missing.
Failure of the Slam Bang Approach: –
The West Indies failed in converting their slam-bang approach. The team has a mentality similar to England, but the team doesn’t look technically sound to pull off something like England. They also have adopted the “All-Out Attack” policy to pressurize the opposition. This policy hasn’t worked for them since they keep losing wickets at regular intervals. The West Indies lacked players like Marlon Samuels and Shai Hope, players who can hold the game. The players who don’t let the game slip away are also required and they were missing.
Lack of Spin Bowling Options: –
As mentioned earlier in the blog, West Indies struggled to face spin bowlers. The other face of this coin is that they lacked spin bowling options. The presence of Akiel Hossein didn’t help since his inability to turn the ball was visible. Whiling picking the squad, Sunil Narine was neglected and this proved very costly for the Caribbean Giants.
