Shivnarine Chanderpaul feels he is due for a big score and does not think his form has deserted him as he prepares for West Indies’ second World Cup game tomorrow.
“It is still there, but I am not getting many big totals, I need to get big scores to get it going again,’ the normally prolific left-hander said after West Indies practice session yesterday at the Kensington Oval in Kingston.
Yet Chanderpaul is not about to ditch the cautious approach he displayed against Pakistan that only netted him 19 off 63 balls. It is because he has developed wariness for the Sabina Park pitch where West Indies will play all three of their first round games.
“It not as fast as it use to be, it is a bit slow and the ball stands up a bit more,” the former West Indies captain declared. “It doesn’t have the pace and you can’t go though the line, the ball stands up a bit more,” he stated.
“You can fling your bat and get away with it, but it is the kind of pitch, if you get in you stay and build your innings” the former captain explained. “It calls for hard work and you play according to what you get”.
Although the left-hander does have personal goals for the World Cup he will not reveal them “Personal goals is not something I discuss in the open,” said the Test middle order batsman, who has been West Indies’ form player of late, striking a huge century and a half century in three matches of the team’s pre World Cup series against India on the Sub Continent.
In the prior two series in the Champions Trophy and Malaysia tri series he also scored big.
But the Guyanese failed to get among the runs when he returned to the Guyana team for the KFC Cup one-day series late in January. It was the first appearance for Guyana for the experienced former national captain who currently resides in Florida in the United States, in a while after missing the Stanford 20/20 competition and the entire Carib Cup.
But he has not given up on his home country, stating that he will play for Guyana whenever West Indies commitments do not prevent him.
On his relinquishing of the West Indies captaincy last year, Chanderpaul stressed that it was a personal decision to improve his batting.
“My batting really wasn’t going anywhere so I decided to give it a rest and focus a little more.” He said he is happy now with his role in the team opening the batting in One Dayers and dropping down the order to number five in Tests.
His fitness, he said is okay after a gruelling schedule with West Indies last year.
“What injuries?” he queried when asked about his omission from the team for the second One Dayer against India in January after he struck a epic 149 runs off 136 balls in Nagpur. “It is nothing to worry about.”
