Nicholas Pooran opens up on West Indies' recent failure in ODIs

West Indies ODI captain Nicholas Pooran has urged their batting department to be more 'proactive' in the ODI format. His comments came after their recent failure in the 50-over format. He also stated that they need to be careful when the ball is swinging in or spinning as they are preparing to play against Bangladesh in a three-match ODI series.

The series is slated to begin in Guyana on Sunday (July 10). However, West Indies are not in their best form in the 50-over format considering they've only won once in the five series they've played so far since 2021. While they swept away the Netherlands, they lost to Australia, Ireland, India and Pakistan, in the 50-over format.

And, Pooran also felt that the batters needed to understand the importance of having partnerships, which will be important behind their success against Bangladesh, who will be eyeing to bounce back in their favourite format after losing both the Test and the T20I series as well.

"Looking back at the Pakistan series, we as a team obviously reflect, and spoke about the importance of partnerships and about partnership awareness in batting 50 overs," Pooran shared ahead of the series opener. 

As a batting group we believe that every time the ball is swinging in or the ball has started to spin we reacted very late and this is something we want to work in as a team and as a group and try to get better in the series,” he said.

Pooran not underestimating the Tigers

However, Pooran has also said that they are well aware that they will be challenged by Bangladesh's strong spin unit but admitted that they are not complicating things by overthinking about it.

"We just are going to play ball by ball and we've spoken at the T20 about how we are going to play. We had a chat how we are going to play their spinners in this ODI series. So hoping that all goes well and we have this conversation after this series. No special plans (for Tamim) and it's about discipline from our side and tries our best to stick to our game plan. 

At the end of the day the game is played and we need to play the game at the right way obviously Tamim can out-fool us and we respect that they have very good players and it can be anyone's game on their day so just need to continue to do the right thing for a long period of time and we will be fine," he added.

Meanwhile, Nicholas Pooran has also said that he is excited to lead the ODI squad for the first time that too in West Indies.

"It means a lot (to lead West Indies in the ODI format for the first time at home) and obviously leading the West Indies is a big accomplishment. I am always hearing something about my batting and my performance (in ODIs) and I think in last six to nine games I haven't performed with the bat in the ODI format and that is one of my favourite formats,” he concluded.