There was a time when the great windies side of the 1980s used to terrorize each and every opponent in the world cricket. They were utterly dominant in the world cricket for a good part of 20 odd years and their dominance was only controlled when India won the finals of the 1983 world cup that stopped the indomitable West Indies from winning their 3rd consecutive world cup.
Although their dominance was cut short once the Australians emerged as world beaters from the late 80s, the Windies team have been dominant in the shortest format of the game and the fact that they have won 2 Wt20 in the last 3 times is a prime example of the way they enjoy playing in the shortest format of the game.
One of the main reason why the West Indies have been dominant in the T20 format is that they have players who are tailor made for the shortest format of the game. They have one of the greatest T20 player of all time in Andre Russell who has been a massive revelation in the T20 cricket. He has been a one man army for whichever team he plays in this format of the game. He bowls, murders with the bat, takes breathtaking catch in the field and what not.
Here’s what the champion all rounder Dwayne Bravo had to say about the superman Dre Russ
It’s the same I used to say of Chris Gayle when Chris Gayle was in his prime – we are happy to have him representing us, we didn’t have to come up and bowl against him in an international match. It’s the same with Andre Russell. Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, is our Brian Lara, in the T20 format. He is the superstar
It is a very well known fact that West Indies are not even in the top 5 rankings in world cricket. Although they are the defending T20 champions at the moment, they haven’t been playing like the defending champions off late. The veteran all rounder who seemed to be worried about their consistency said that he wanted to make the windies side to be back to their dominant best .
We have produced some of the best players in the world and when we are together in the same team, we have to stamp our authority, and to get the cricketing world to respect West Indies cricket again and especially West Indies’ T20 team. We said, ‘All hands on deck, let’s start with this Sri Lanka series and make sure we send the message.’ Yeah, that’s what we did.