ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 28, 2021

Nicholas Pooran

Sharjah Stadium

West Indies

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Obviously in the last game against South Africa, you came in at number three. Do you think that's the position that you would be happy to bat for the remainder of the tournament? Or for you, you're just happy to play wherever the team asks you to play depending on the opposition or team position?

NICHOLAS POORAN: For me, it's just about seeing what the team wants me to do, to be honest. At the moment, in the tournament, it was just to put our hands up and perform whatever role the team requires. That's it.

Q. Bangladesh tomorrow, obviously they've lost two games as well. Right now for the team, do you think Bangladesh is kind of the perfect opposition to play to try to get some points on the board?

NICHOLAS POORAN: Yeah, I think Bangladesh, after losing two games, they're in the situation with us as well. So I think it's going to be a good challenge for us tomorrow. We need to get that victory.

And being in Sharjah as well -- we know Bangladesh has a lot of spinners as well. It's definitely going to be a good challenge for us as well. And it's how bad we actually want it.

Q. Actually both of the teams are sort of standing on the same point, losing two matches each. And tomorrow you are going to play against Bangladesh. And all of us know that boundary there in Sharjah is very limited from the two sides. Do you think this is the perfect opportunity for you guys to explore and bounce back in the tournament?

NICHOLAS POORAN: Yeah, I definitely think it's a good opportunity for us to bounce back. We're not sure how Sharjah is going to play tomorrow. But our focus is not on the small boundaries, to be honest. We just want to execute our skills. And once we can do that, then the results can take care of itself.

We can't really say it's short boundaries and we're going to hit 6s. And we want to be aggressive as a team. We can't really say that. Only when we go tomorrow and we assess the pitch, the conditions there, then we can actually try to put a game plan into place as quick as possible and try to get a really good score.

Q. Both teams lost two games in a row. And tomorrow is a do-or-die match for both teams to carry on in the World Cup. What do you think, can you win the game, or Bangladesh can beat you the same way?

NICHOLAS POORAN: Yeah, it's just another game of cricket. Anyone can win. But as you said, it's a do-or-die game for us. And we believe that we're going to be successful tomorrow. And again, I can't emphasise enough how important it is to perform our roles. Once we do that, then everything can take care of itself.

Q. What's the mood like in the camp after two defeats? How much of a boost is Jason Holder to the team? And from a batting perspective, what is it different that the team needs to do?

NICHOLAS POORAN: The mood in the camp is still good. The guys are generally, think we were hit by losing those two games. And we have only ourselves to blame. But the mood is still good. We know what we have to do and everyone is up for the challenge.

And (indiscernible) coming to the team, quality player as well. Happy to have him. We wish him all the best. And with the batting order, the batting order and batsmen, we just didn't rise to the occasion, to be honest.

If you can accept that we weren't good on the first two games, I think as batsmen, as a team, we already accepted that we didn't come to the party. And we're looking forward to moving forward and hopefully we can do much better.

Q. Bangladesh have a lot of their fellows in the top order, as well as strong perception that they've handled faster men in that role. Do you believe there's going to be a lot of enforced changes, especially for this for these matchups?

NICHOLAS POORAN: To be honest, we don't know what Bangladesh is thinking. At the moment both teams isn't playing that good, isn't batting too well. So Sharjah is a tricky wicket at times as well. So we don't know what they're thinking. But let's see. Tomorrow we'll see.

Q. About 17 overs of that, out of the 44.2 versus West Indies batting so far in this tournament. Do you think you'll have to be a bit more smarter about how you go about setting targets or chasing targets, given the huge clump of those balls (indiscernible) so far?

NICHOLAS POORAN: I think every single team bats that bowls, but it's the way that we're batting that we're showing no intent. That's it. That's it for the last two games. We spoke about it. And we have practised, and guys will have a discussion again.

To be honest with you, I think that was just the intent. We know we can be back up. First two games we didn't show much intent but we know we are much better than that as a team.

Q. You played in the BPL, and you played with some with some of the players (indiscernible) World Cup. (Indiscernible) and some other guys. How much does this help to play with each other?

NICHOLAS POORAN: It helps a lot. I spent a lot of time in Bangladesh as well. Not only me, but a lot of the other guys as well. We have good friendships. We make good friendships with the guys. We get to understand them. We get to learn from them as well especially under different conditions. So going into that game actually knowing what these guys do, are very familiar with it, that helps us a lot as batsmen and as bowlers as well.

Q. I want to know that you guys have -- we saw that in the first game versus England you guys have only 55 runs. Do you think that balanced spinners can do it for West Indies?

NICHOLAS POORAN: One way to know, tomorrow we find out. Anyone can bowl well on a day. And we accept that. So it's just for us to hope that that doesn't happen tomorrow.

Q. Given Bangladesh's strength being left on spinning, there's a possibility you could bat up the order and sort of negate them. There's also Jason Holder, who has sort of been doing the spinners job for Barbados right into the CPL. Has this been discussed leading up to the game to tackle the Bangladesh left-handers?

NICHOLAS POORAN: It doesn't really matter, to be honest. We back all batsmen 100 percent. Doesn't matter if it's right or left-handed batsmen. We back them to do the job for us. Whoever is playing in the 11 tomorrow, they have specific rules. We have a wonderful captain. He knows what he's doing as well. Whatever he says goes, and we back him to make some really good decisions for us tomorrow to be successful.