After a tragic end to their campaign in the preliminary stage of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, Nicholas Pooran is confident that West Indies can "redeem" themselves by going all the way and winning the trophy this time at home.
Pooran was the captain of the Windies in the previous edition had to turn in his resignation after the fiasco. However, the southpaw believes that the West Indies players who are a part of the World Cup squad have moved on from the debacle.
"We all have grown as players, as team-mates as well," Pooran told ESPNcricinfo. "When we played in Australia where we didn't qualify, everyone was hurt. I resigned (from) captaincy after that as well. Everyone was hurt. But we are no longer that group of guys.
"We all know what's at stake here. We all know that we have an opportunity to obviously redeem ourselves, make our cricket fans in the Caribbean and our cricket fans all over the world proud of us (and) happy. This time around we are much better players as well. Most of our guys that play franchise cricket, they understand what is needed to be a professional as well."
Chuffed by West Indies' 3-0 series win over South Africa at home recently, Pooran is confident that the players are willing to give their 100% on the field of play and want to put the team first over themselves.
"If you just look at the series we played against South Africa, a few guys were missing, but we were able to win that series 3-nil," Pooran mentioned. "You saw the performances, you saw that guys are fighting and that's really important. We may win, we may not win, but what's more important for me, as a senior player as well, is that we need to give it 100% on and off the field.
"It's not about us, it's about our team, 100%. It's important for me to continue to share that message: that it's not about me or ourselves. It's not about us at all. It's all about what we can do for this team to be successful in the end."
