West Indies don't know to rotate strike, feels Raina; Darren Sammy laughs off in response

Suresh Raina

Indian middle order batsman Suresh Raina has taken a jibe at the West Indian batsman ahead of his team’s World Cup clash against the Windies saying that the Caribbean batsmen have ‘no idea’ about rotating the strike and are just capable of hitting sixes. Sounding confident of his team’s chances, the 27-year-old said that building more pressure on them will make things easier for India.

Raina said, “West Indies will be a totally different team as they have a lot of players who can hit sixes, but they don’t have an idea about how to rotate the strike against spinners by taking singles and twos. Therefore, the more pressure we put on the bigger players, better it will be for us.”

Darren Sammy, however, has laughed off Raina’s comments on his team’s batsmen: “Raina has a right to say whatever he wants. But if he feels we’re (just) six-hitters, then they got to stop up from hitting sixes.”

Raina, speaking further, added, “We have Mishra, who has done well in the last match. Ashwin has also bowled well and Jadeja is doing well too. But T20 is dependant on who is better on that particular day. Also depends on what you intend to do after winning the toss. Spinners will be key in this contest. Especially in the manner, we bowled against Pakistan, which plays spin really well.”

“About facing spinners, it’s not that there is great turn (on this track) but some turn available. While shaping up for a shot, you need to come under the ball. Your thought-process should be clear. If you think you want to hit it then you should go ahead and if you decide against it then be it. Between 7 to 11 overs, is the time when you need to rotate the strike well. If you get even one loose ball, if you can convert it into fours and sixes, then it’s good.”

On how to tackle teams with world-class spinners like Saeed Ajmal and Sunil Narine, he said: “Definitely, Pakistan had Ajmal, West Indies has Narine. In these shorter formats, you have to plan for two overs. You need to decide whom to attack and whom to defend. We have good middle-order. We have Dhoni, Yuvraj and then Jadeja and Ashwin. So if we get a good start, we have batsmen down the order.”