West Indies captain Kieron Pollard said "nothing is impossible" in "life and sport", as he is still optimistic about finishing the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 on a high in the UAE.
The defending champions, West Indies are almost out of the semi-finals race, having won just one game in their three outings so far in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021, but Pollard is not giving up hope of his side making it to the top four in the global tournament.
West Indies have only two games left to qualify for the semi-finals of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021, against Sri Lanka on Thursday (November 4) and Australia on November 7, and Pollard said his team is aiming to defeat the Islanders in Abu Dhabi to keep their hopes alive.
However, the West Indies skipper expressed his frustration with his team’s performances so far in the tournament but insisted morale remains high despite early setbacks.
Pollard said in an official ICC release ahead of the match, “We are all disappointed, and I'm sure most of the fans are disappointed at the position that we are in as a team. It's something that we accept but we have an opportunity over a couple of games to finish the tournament on a high.
Obviously, we've finished the early stages and see mathematically where we sit, but I think the main focus for us is actually winning the two games, and everything else can sort of take care of itself afterward.”
He added, “In this thing called life and sport, nothing is impossible. What I can safely say is yes, the guys are confident. We knew exactly what sort of is needed in terms of from a run rate perspective, and we'll take all things into consideration when that match starts.
But I also believe that it's very, very important that we continue to go through the process of trying to improve each and every time as a team and especially from a batting perspective, and that's going to be the order of the day.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga – who scalped 14 wickets so far in the T20 World Cup 2021, will be a big threat to West Indies, but the skipper warned his teammates not to focus solely on the leg-spinner, as they have beat the entire team to gain 2 crucial points.
He noted, “Obviously he [Hasaranga] has been phenomenal for Sri Lanka for a long period of time and he has done well against us in the past. He is definitely a trump card when it comes to their bowling line-up but as a team, we have chatted about how we want to go about batting against certain individuals.”
Pollard signed off by saying, “It's not only about Hasaranga. We do have to beat him this game but you have to think about the Kumaras and the Chameeras and all these guys. Everyone has a skill and a talent in their own right. We're coming up against the Sri Lanka cricket team and we're looking forward to playing a good solid game of cricket against that team.”
(With ANI Inputs)
