Dubai: West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard has said that the crushing defeat to England in the opening 'Super 12' game of the ICC T20 World Cup here was something he cannot be proud of, adding that wholesale changes could be in the offing in the defending champions' next game.
In one of the worst possible displays by the West Indies batters on the big stage, the 2016 T20 World champions could only put 55 on the board, with only Chris Gayle crossing over to a double-digit score as the team was bundled out in just 14.2 overs. In reply, England finished the task in 8.2 overs.
On whether the defeat was a case of poor decision-making or a genuinely good display on the field by England, Pollard said that a "55-odd for an international team is unacceptable".
"Again as I said, it's not something that we are proud of as a team. We got out. But I'm not going to go into what it is or how it is. Obviously just plain to see, 55-odd for the international team I think is unacceptable and we accept that. So we revisit and hopefully we come back stronger. At the end of it, once we have life, we have opportunity to do things better. A lot of different things are happening around, where people don't have opportunities to put things right. For us, we have an opportunity to, so we take a couple (of) days… and we see how it goes in a couple days' time."
The captain categorically denied that there were any demons in the pitch, and that it was the lack of application that let the side down. "I think it was a good wicket to bat on. The ball was coming on to the bat decently (but) it had something there (for the bowlers). But there were no demons in it. Again, (as) I said, a good batting display, a good batting track, sorry, but not a great batting display," he added.
"It's disappointing to start a tournament like that, being defending champions. We take full responsibility for what transpired out there and for us, games like these, you try to bin it as quickly as possible and then you move on." For England, it was sweet revenge for the last-over loss in the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup, where Carlos Brathwaite blasted four sixes off Ben Stokes to snatch victory from defeat.
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"I think for us, it's very, very important that a game like this you sort of forget. You try to dig too much into it. Then you might unearth some things that you don't really want to. For us, it's pretty simple: Accept and move on," said Pollard, adding that there are going to be "wholesale changes". "We have been demolished in our eight-and-point-something overs. And we make 50-odd mean that there is going to be wholesale changes. For us, as I said, we need to try to come back strong."
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