Sachin,

For heaven's sake, please promote Kieron Pollard to No-3 or no-4

I can’t quite understand the strategy behind keeping Pollard to no-6. Do you expect him to slog in the final overs? Man, he can do much more than slogging in the final overs.

Who is the clean hitter of the ball? Ambati rayudu or Kieron Pollard?

Who betters the unorthodox cricket? Juan Pablo Duminy or Kieron Pollard?

Who is the strong striker of the cherry? Sourabh Tiwary or Kieron Pollard?

Finally, if Pollard would have faced those 32 balls which Rayudu played, and could have been at the crease ahead of JP and Sourabh, see what difference it would have made to the score card.

You paid a whopping millions to get him on board, you gotto use him properly my dear friend. ICL is gone, at least look to retain him in the IPL-4 and use him properly. Promote him to no-3 or no4, give him enough room to work his magic. Even in the club stage cricket one cant start hitting from the first ball he faced, I don’t know where you are losing the trick. A player of his caliber needs more opportunities, more time to spend at the crease. One can’t expect him to steer the wonders with hardly 3, 4 overs to end. Oh no. Come on, the traditional copy book cricketing logic doesn’t work in T20 always sir. It simply doesn’t.

Its not the fielding that had lost you the game yesterday, it’s the strategy. It’s just because you haven't used Pollard effectively. One can’t even quite understand why was he not given more overs to bowl? One over during 16,17,18 and 19 instead of Bravo, Ali Murtaza and Zaheer would have seen a different result. I say this not as a fence sitter, but as an ardent follower of the game.

For heaven's sake, use him properly- One Kieron Pollard playing under Dhonis, Rickys and Jayawaradhane's of the world, shall be a destructive force, impregnable! Undoubtedly.

When I started scribbling this piece, West Indies (Windies) have lost to Sri Lanka in the first game of the T20 world cup Super-8. But now, it was just after the same team beaten India in the second of their super-8 game and kept their chances alive for the tournament.

However, I am gonna keep my suggestions and views intact despite their astounding performance today.

I strongly think there is a problem with the Windies batting order; somehow this Windies cricket team resembles me of Indian cricket team of 2000s. They rely heavily on the three heavy weights on top- Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, as much as the Indian Cricket team used to do on Sachin, Sourav and Dravid in 2000s.I feel that three main players on top is not a good idea in the shorter version of the game.

1) In the pursuit of quick runs on board if any two of the three fall, that is going to put on extra bit of unwarranted pressure on the youngsters to follow through.
2) Losing their most senior batsmen upfront takes experience out of the middle and lower middle order of windies and hence making them vulnerable in dealing with pressure situations.
3) And more importantly, neither Shivnarine chanderpaul nor Ramnaresh Sarwan batting style really helps them exploit the first six over’s fielding restrictions.

Instead of keeping three of your most experienced batsmen right on top and running with a risk of losing them early and exposing the considerably in-experienced middle order to pressure, may be it’s a good idea to spread this experience across the batting order and help them steer through the innings to the end.

I propose Chris Gayle may look at some bit of reshuffling in the batting order to leverage the experience and the technique of these two veterans.

To start with- Chanderpaul is not the right option to take on the fresh ball along with Chris Gayle, I don’t know what the idea behind it was, is he expected to play a sheet anchor role keeping the world's most destructive batsman on the other end. It’s a bad idea! You are forgetting those precious first six overs and most importantly to get a flashy and healthy start. You consider bringing back Adrian Barath or Andre Fletcher to the opening slot even looking at William Perkins considering his Champions League T20 performance is also a thought of worth.

One more serious mistake Windies has been doing is Keeping Kieron Pollard to the end of the innings. Mumbai Indians have done exactly the same mistake. Having Kieron Pollard on your side is only the half, while using him well will be the second half. Remember what happened in the IPL final, by time Pollard started pulling strings back it way too late, Pollard at crease instead of Ambati Rayudu, or Sourabh Tiwary or JP Duminy would have made a difference to the IPL final. Remember- majority of the SMS respondents had faith in Kieron Pollard that he can steer Mumbai to the victory even in the 18th over of the IPL Finals. The Audience, opponents, analysts and virtually everybody around the field seem to have confidence in Pollard except his captain.

Pollard should be in with at least 10 over’s to spare to work his magic-which makes him my obvious choice for 3, 4 or 5 numbers.

I see no place for Wavell Hinds in the team and also look at Darren Sammy only as a bowling all rounder. Replace Wavell Hinds with the next best specialist batsman/ batting all rounder in the domestic season perhaps somebody like, Darren Bravo- who is showing a lot of promise at the international level.

My proposed batting order for first 8 positions.

1) Chris Gayle
2) Adrian Barath or Andre Fletcher or William Perkins
3) Ramnaresh Sarwan or Kieron Pollard
4) Kieron Pollard or Ramnaresh Sarwan
5) Dwayne Bravo
6) Shivnarine chanderpaul
7) Darren Bravo or Wavell Hinds or any other specialist batsmen/batting all rounder
8) William Perkins or Dinesh Ramdin

Chanderpaul at no-6 adds a lot of depth and experience to the inexperienced lower order. Remember, Chanderpaul is also good at building formidable partnerships with lower order batsmen in the other versions of game. Sarwan being a genuine no-3 player may be used interchangeably with Pollard based on the situation.

All said and done- if Windies need to get going the big guns need to fire. Looking at their considerably weak and ineffective bowling attack, they need to lay more emphasis always on putting a healthy total on board and build pressure. I see absolutely no point in keeping players like Adrian Barath and William Perkins who are proven players at the international circuit and also played and performed against most of these folks at the CLT20, so bring them back as soon as possible.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Srikrishna Chintalapati