Pool B has had some interesting activity in the World Cup

Every World Cup comes packed with its set of surprises and disappointments. My personal disappointments from this edition have been the way the West Indies and Pakistan have played, two teams that I love watching when they’re in form. Though neither of them have reasons to give their fans very high expectations, West Indies have improved leaps and bounds from the last decade and Pakistan move around with an ‘unpredictable’ tag attached to them all the time.

West Indies are not as bad a team as their performance in the tournament seems to indicate – with Gayle, Smith, Samuels, Sammy and the unpredictable Russell, they have a reasonable batting line-up. Their bowling is not the strongest in the competition but they have some good quicks in Taylor, Roach and Holder. The bowling options beyond the top three has been a problem but what seems to have affected this flamboyant set of players the most is the morale. The players and the board have had an uncomfortable relationship for years but it touched a low-point at an inconvenient time last year when the touring team in India decided to head back in the middle of the series under the captaincy of Dwayne Bravo. That probably prompted the selectors to drop Bravo and Pollard from the World Cup squad. Dropping Bravo has had a huge impact to the team’s chances and their belief, he makes his presence felt in every aspect of the game – batting, bowling and fielding. Some players including Chris Gayle decided to go public on their disappointment with the decision. Their body language just does not seem to suggest a positive intent at the moment. They are likely to be fighting against Ireland for the last spot in the Quarters from Pool B. 

Pakistan, in the meantime, after having started poorly in the World Cup, have managed to regain some confidence with back to back wins against the UAE, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the last of which was a big upset. Bowling has always been their strength and despite the absence of Saeed Ajmal and Junaid Khan, is starting to come good. The batting has been struggling, there has been nothing much to cheer about other than skipper Misbal-ul-Haq’s form. Their moves in dropping Younis Khan down the order and getting Sarfraz to open the batting could do the trick for them. If they continue to pick up momentum as they have in the last week, that could hike up the spice content in the knockout stages.