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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Powell fancies team’s chances of overcoming Sri Lanka

by

SPORTS DESK
283 days ago
20241013
Sri Lanka’s Charith Asalanka and West Indies’ Rovman Powell pose with the T20I series trophy.

Sri Lanka’s Charith Asalanka and West Indies’ Rovman Powell pose with the T20I series trophy.

DAMBUL­LA, Sri Lan­ka While West In­dies’ T20 cap­tain Rov­man Pow­ell is ex­pect­ing a “fas­ci­nat­ing” se­ries against Sri Lan­ka, he ful­ly be­lieves his troops will come out on top.

The two teams face off in the first of three T20Is on Sun­day at the Ran­giri Dambul­la In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um, and a con­fi­dent Pow­ell said the team was up­beat of their chances of con­tin­u­ing their win­ning form in T20 se­ries.

They both en­ter this se­ries on the back of some promis­ing white-ball re­sults.

West In­dies have clean swept both South Africa and In­dia at home in T20Is in 2024, while Sri Lan­ka have a home ODI se­ries win against In­dia, as well as white-ball se­ries wins against Zim­bab­we and Afghanistan.

The last time the West In­dies toured Sri Lan­ka in 2020 for a white-ball se­ries, they swept the T20Is 2-0.

In 15 T20Is be­tween the two, the West In­dies have won sev­en and Sri Lan­ka eight.

“A Sri Lankan team at home is al­ways chal­leng­ing, and world crick­et needs a good Sri Lankan team just as much as they need a good West In­dies team, and it’s good to see both teams play­ing good crick­et at the mo­ment, so it should be a fas­ci­nat­ing se­ries,” Pow­ell said.

“[But] our guys are up­beat about our chances of play­ing Sri Lan­ka and beat­ing Sri Lan­ka in Sri Lan­ka.”

Pow­ell, how­ev­er, ad­mit­ted that it would not be an easy task to de­feat Sri Lan­ka at home.

“It’s al­ways chal­leng­ing for a West In­dies team to tour Sri Lan­ka, but for­tu­nate­ly for us we have guys that have toured Sri Lan­ka be­fore, and it’s al­so an op­por­tu­ni­ty for guys to get their feet wet in con­di­tions that will play the next T20 World Cup.

“It’s typ­i­cal Sri Lankan con­di­tions; the ball will spin, the ball will grip; they tend to make those kinds of wick­ets for their ad­van­tage,” Pow­ell said.

“But it’s a West In­dies team that has qual­i­ty spin­ners al­so, so we’re def­i­nite­ly look­ing for­ward to the chal­lenge.”

Pow­ell said he was al­so look­ing for­ward to the new guys in the team get­ting an op­por­tu­ni­ty to prove them­selves on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

He said with the 2026 ICC Men’s World Cup set to be co-host­ed by In­dia and Sri Lan­ka, it pre­sent­ed the per­fect chance for the young play­ers to ex­pe­ri­ence the con­di­tions.

“It’s ex­cit­ing times for new tal­ent com­ing through in the T20 set­up, and it’s al­so im­por­tant for me as a leader to lead from the front.

“Once you lead from the front, the young guys will nat­u­ral­ly fol­low,” Pow­ell said.

SQUAD

WEST IN­DIES: Rov­man Pow­ell (cap­tain), Ros­ton Chase (vice-cap­tain), Fabi­an Allen, Al­ick Athanaze, An­dre Fletch­er, Ter­rance Hinds, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Bran­don King, Evin Lewis, Gu­dakesh Motie, Sher­fane Ruther­ford, Ro­mario Shep­herd, Shamar Springer.

T20I Se­ries:

1st T20I: Oc­to­ber 13, 2024 – Ran­giri Dambul­la In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um.

2nd T20I: Oc­to­ber 15, 2024 – Ran­giri Dambul­la In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um.

3rd T20I: Oc­to­ber 17, 2024 – Ran­giri Dambul­la In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um.

(CMC)


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