West Indies are the only team to have won the T20 World Cup title twice. They captured the title in 2012 and 2016. However, the Men in Maroon are going through a bad phase right now. They participated in Round 1 of the T20 World Cup 2022 and failed to qualify for the Super 12 stage.
Despite having some of the world’s top T20 players in the squad, the Nicholas Pooran-led outfit lost to teams like Scotland and Ireland to crash out of the mega event in the first round itself. They will have to make some big changes to revive their cricket team, and here are four things they can do.
1. West Indies should appoint a head coach from India or Australia
The Caribbean team did not have the best coaching staff in T20 World Cup. Even associate teams like Namibia and Netherlands had a better group of coaches. The board should try to recruit someone like Ashish Nehra or Justin Langer who can take the team to the next level.
2. West Indies should give chances to players who do not play regularly
The Caribbean team might not have fared so badly if they gave chances to players like Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, who play in T20 leagues across the world. Although they do not play international cricket regularly, Russell and Narine have a great knowledge of conditions in Australia, which would have helped the entire team.
3. Play against associate teams and build momentum
Winning momentum is quite crucial in T20I cricket. After last year’s T20 World Cup, the Caribbean team played 24 T20I matches, all against top-tier teams and registered only seven wins. On the other side, teams like Zimbabwe and Namibia came into the mega event after winning lots of matches in T20Is against smaller teams.
The next T20 World Cup is in West Indies in 2024. Given how badly they performed this year, they should organize some matches against associate teams and build a winning combination instead of losing regularly against big teams.
4. Bring back all out approach
The best thing about the Caribbean players was their all-out approach. They would score 200 on their good day and even get all out for less than 100 on a bad day. However, in T20 World Cup 2022, that approach was missing. The Caribbean team finished with a score of 146/5 in 20 overs against Ireland. A change in approach of the game like England could revive the Windies.
