West Indies are set to begin their ODI campaign against India, amidst a lack of form in the format in recent years. Their newly appointed captain, Nicholas Pooran, has acknowledged their shortcomings in the ODI format ahead of their opening game against India, saying his team is yet to find the right template.

“Not only from my side but from a coaching side as well, our focus is to balance ODI cricket between T20 cricket and Test cricket,” the West Indies skipper said. 

“I think we haven’t found the right template yet and everyone can see that. We’re not batting 50 overs and that’s the first box we want to tick,” he added.

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West Indies were recently beaten by Bangladesh 3-0 at home in the ODI series. While they managed to emerge victorious in the subsequent Test and T20I series, the Carribean side failed to replicate their performance in the course of 50 overs. In all of their three ODI matches against Bangladesh, West Indies batted first and failed to either put up a 200 plus score or play out all of the overs.

“At the moment, when you ask me what brand of cricket we want to play in ODI cricket, it’s difficult to say yet. For example, if you want to play aggressive cricket, it’s difficult to play aggressive cricket in tough conditions,” the 26-year-old said. 

The West Indies skipper mentioned that the primary aim is to bat all 50 overs, saying it matters less how they do it as pitch conditions will have a say in it.

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“For us, it’s all about finding ways to bat 50 overs – it doesn’t matter how we bat 50 overs – but I believe conditions do play a part in how we play our cricket,” he quipped.

West Indies do not have a great record against India in the ongoing century as they have failed to beat the Men in Blue in 11 consecutive ODI series since 2007. They were also beaten 3-0 by the Indians earlier this year, facing yet another whitewash.

However, despite facing a new-look and relatively young Indian side, Pooran feels he will be in a better position to respond regarding their style of play after they face New Zealand in August.

“For us, it’s ticking one box at a time and one step at a time. I believe that in T20 cricket we’re starting to know what kind of cricket we want to play; in Test cricket same thing, but the more games we play as an ODI unit,” he said. 

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“I think we’re going to get better,” he said before continuing, “It will be nice if I can answer this question maybe after the New Zealand series, going by conditions and how guys react to certain situations as well,” he said.

Pooran also indicated that they are looking forward to the series against India where they will be aiming to get back and ‘correct some rights and wrongs.’

“We’re just looking forward to some things going our way because the guys have been putting in a lot of work and we’re looking forward to this India series to correct some rights and wrongs,” the wicketkeeper batter finished.