Pollard : “We will play to our strengths, currently working on team combination”

Pollard talks about the IPL experience

“It [IPL experience] was good, not just for us but all players involved in the World Cup, who got a feel of what is on offer,” Pollard said at a media event on Saturday. “There will be some stats comparison and trends that may have come out of the IPL. We have to take all that into consideration, take the context of the surfaces, atmosphere, and put them into our game plan.

“For us, most of our guys got a chance to play recently here, so for us it’s about trying to hit the ground running, start off on a positive note, get those first two points and see what happens after that.”

We will Hit Big from Ball One – Pollard

“You’ve seen it all around the world, that is how we go about our cricket,” he said of the power-hitting. “Lot of people, analysts at different times, harp on dot balls, singles, ones and twos. Everything is important, but we still have to play to our strengths. I’m not going to say what that is because then the heading will be ‘West Indies just want to hit sixes’.

“We need to keep our strengths as strengths and work on our weakness. We have a lot of powerful guys in the line-up, but if the situation warrants, we also have guys who can manoeuvre strike, run between the wickets. We look forward to playing complete games of cricket.”

Pollards praises Roston Chase

“For him it was a matter of evolving his game and trying to be the best he can,” Pollard said. “He got a chance with St Lucia Stars. It’s a matter of putting guys in the right positions, and he has delivered for them for the last two years. It goes to show how every time you get a chance, you want to do well. He’s done well for himself.

“The type of cricket he plays fits right into our balance, right in the middle of our power-hitters. We need a guy who can manoeuvre the ball, hit the occasional boundaries, and keep the run rate going.

That’s an area we keep constantly working on, and we thought he was the right fit at this time. I look forward to see what he has to offer.

He hasn’t played much white-ball cricket, and teams may not have that much data. Or maybe they do, there’s an archive full of runs and wickets. We look forward to reaping rewards of his form from the CPL.”