Kieron Pollard has been appointed as the new captain of West Indies limited-overs squads. Cricket West Indies president Ricky Skerritt announced the same in a press conference in Trinidad on Monday.
Pollard replaces Holder and Brathwaite
A disappointing performance at the World Cup and then a complete whitewash against India at home led the Windies cricket board to choose a new skipper for the team for limited overs stints. Kieron Pollard replaces Jason Holder and Carlos Brathwaite as skippers of ODI and T20I teams. Skerritt said, “Jason Holder was called by me yesterday morning and we spoke. He’s a very important force and is still going to be our red-ball captain. Holder will now compete for a place in Pollad’s team and use this as an opportunity to become a better cricketer. Pollard is the right man at the right time to take our white-ball teams forward.”
Pollard is one of the mainstays in West Indies line up and the big-hitting all-rounder has so far played 101 ODIs and 62 T20Is. In ODI he has scored 2,289 runs at an average of 25.71 with three centuries and nine fifties and scalped 50 wickets. In T20Is, he has played 62 matches, scoring 903 runs at an average of 21.50 and picked up 23 wickets till now. Stating him as the best option available around, the president said, “What impressed me the most about Pollard was his keenness and commitment to give back to the game.”
Ready for the first assignment
West Indies finished ninth in the recently concluded World Cup held in England and Wales. They could manage to register only two wins out of the nine matches they played in the and finished just above Afghanistan, the newcomers. Post the tournament they failed to win a single match in the three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches against India in the home series. West Indies will next play against Afghanistan in their away tour. The matches will be staged in Dehradun from November 5 and both the sides compete in three T20Is, three ODIs and one Test. This will be Pollard’s first assignment as skipper.
