Sarwan looks to emulate 2004 Champions Trophy success

Former West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan advised his batsmen to concentrate on the basics of the game in a bid to repeat their success from the 2004 Champions Trophy.

“It is important that you start off trying to play the ball as late as possible.” he said. “The good thing about it is that the outfields are pretty quick here, so even if you have sweepers out and you time the ball well enough it will probably go for four. You will get value for your strokes.

“It would be a great achievement to win this tournament. When we won back in 2004 we came in as underdogs. We want to repeat that,” said Sarwan, who was adjudged the player of the tournament in 2004. He scored two half-centuries in four matches, including one in the semi-final and finished as thesecond highest run-getter of the tournament.

Sarwan said that the top-order batsmen need to provide good starts so that players like Kieron Pollard and captain Dwayne Bravo could make the most of the latter half of the innings.

“The key is to give yourself a chance and try to ‘get in’ and just like everything else it gets easier.” he said. “Keeping wickets in hand at the top is vital and we all know we have a lot of power at the end to capitalise, as we are able to clear the boundaries.”

“It’s a great opportunity for us to do well as a team. I was fortunate to be here a little early so I’m basically already acclimatised and have been striking the ball well. I have spent a lot of time batting at the crease, which is a good sign for me, even though I don’t have the big scores to show for it. I was pleased with the way I was striking the ball in the nets and I will look to perform and contribute to the team’s success.”

Source: espncricinfo