West Indian captain Darren Sammy admitted off-spinner Sunil Narine will be his trump card to exploit England's weakness against slow bowlers in the Super Eights match here on Thursday. England, defending the World Twenty20 title they won in the Caribbean two years ago, crashed to their heaviest T20 defeat of 90 runs in their first round match against India, with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh grabbing 4-12.
And that prompted Sammy to raise more hopes with Narine. "Sunil is our trump card, he's done well for us in that format, hopefully he could have a big impact on the English batting line-up," said Sammy of the 24-year-old spinner who has made a big impact at Twenty20 level. Besides Narine, West Indies have the option of bringing in leg-spinner Samuel Badree to add to the guile of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, who can also bowl handy spin. "We'll definitely look to bowl spin against them, but we have quality seam bowlers upfront also. We have Badree who is another spinner in the line-up so hopefully we will bowl well against England and have a good game," said Sammy.
Sammy said the West Indies - who have not won a major event since winning the ICC Champions trophy in 2004 - have the self-belief to finally win a trophy. "The biggest strength for us is the belief in the dressing room that we could win this tournament and we left home thinking that. We have quality in the dressing room, it's up to us to go out and display that quality out there," said Sammy.
England captain Stuart Broad admitted the West Indies team posed a challenge. "We've played against the West Indies this summer (in England), we know they are a dangerous side and they had success in the Twenty20 format with some players who have done well but we are focused for the match," said Broad.