Perth: Clive Lloyd, known as the ‘Big Cat’, is on the prowl for defects in the Indian team.
In his role as West Indies chief selector, Lloyd is checking out the opposition ahead of the match against India on Friday at the WACA ground here, and his team’s make-up will be based on their rivals’ strengths and weaknesses.
After his players trained hard at the Murdoch University ground, Lloyd said: “India will be good opponents. They’ve been playing well and we’ve been sporadic in our play but we’re hoping that this pitch will suit us quite well. It should be quite an exciting game.”
When asked what he thinks about the Indian team, he said: “They’ve won three out of three so we can’t fault their bowling or their batting. India are always a formidable side and they’ll continue to be so. But, when you set a standard, people expect you to keep that standard all the time. India are doing well but I hope they don’t do too well on Friday.
“Their pace bowling seems to be pretty good and you have a good spin bowler in [Ravichandran] Ashwin. They have got a good variety and I think they have good all-round strength. Virat Kohli has been a tremendous player over the last two years and now you have the likes of Shikhar Dhawan coming through.”
To a query as to whether his team is heavily dependent on flamboyant opener Chris Gayle, Lloyd said: “I wouldn’t say that. Before the Zimbabwe match [when Gayle scored 215], he hadn’t really contributed. It’s great whenever we get a good start with him as he scores quickly. He’s a very strong player and, whenever he takes off, it gives the team a good impetus.”
However, he admitted that the quality of his country’s pace attack has been on the decline. “It’s quite obvious. We’d love to have [Andy] Roberts, [Michael] Holding, [Curtly] Ambrose and [Courtney] Walsh. We’ve had a little bit of a decline but we have one or two young players coming through and you’ll hear about them in another year or so.”
Lloyd put on a brave face despite his team missing Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, who were overlooked for the tournament.
“I think we have a formidable side. We bat to eight or nine — everybody from one to nine has done extremely well, posted big scores. I don’t think we have any problem there. Once we bat to our potential we will do extremely well.”
