Winning the T20 World Cup would be our biggest achievement: Pooran

West Indies are two-time World Champions but since then, they have been a shadow version of themselves, with plenty of losses in the shortest version of the game in international cricket. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, the Windies suffered a terrible loss against England before crashing early out of the tournament. 

Since then, several stalwarts – Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Rampaul – have all retired or being frozen out of the setup. Nicholas Pooran talked about the same, stating that there is a fine balance of experienced stars and youngsters in the team. 

Taking the example of Australia, who won the 2021 tournament, Pooran stated that it is more important to play as a team and not as individuals. 

"I think it should be a balance with experience and younger players. If you look at it, there were a lot of big names when we won those two World Cups, but we also had a lot of big names in the last year's World Cup, as well, and we didn't qualify,” Pooran said ahead of the opener against Scotland. 

"To answer that question, it plays a part. I think not only the big names but experienced players, and it is not about any particular players, but it is about our team performance.

"Obviously Australia won last year and they didn't have too many big names, but they obviously had a team and that was proven that that was enough for them to win the World Cup.”

Pooran also talked about how it is a first-time visit for most of the team members to Australia, and insisted that the preparation have been good ahead of the opener against Scotland. 

"A lot of these guys haven't played in Australia. This will be the first time, but the guys are confident, they're happy. The preparation has been really good, and we just can't wait for tomorrow to start our game."

Unlike last time around, Windies have to go through the qualifiers, where they are pitted with the likes of Scotland, Zimbabwe and Ireland. Despite it being a tough group, Pooran insisted that his team can go the distance in the tournament. 

"Obviously for this group here, it's a new group, new faces, a lot of younger players in the team. For us to obviously win this World Cup, it would be our biggest achievement as individuals.

"We are underdogs in this tournament as much as we have won the tournament twice, and a lot of people, a lot of media you see, a lot of people don't think we can even qualify, as well. So it will mean a lot for us," added Pooran.