Windies will win series if they win opener, says Bravo

The West Indies vice-captain Dwayne Bravo says the Caribbean side needs to break its worrying trend of slow starts to series if it is to beat New Zealand in the upcoming five One-Day Internationals.

The all-rounder said too often the Windies found themselves having to come from behind and believed if they could start with a win in Thursday’s opener at Sabina Park, it would augur well for the rest of the series.

“Our aim is consistency. Most times in series we start off on the losing end and then play catch-up,” Bravo was quoted as saying by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“That’s something we’re trying to work on and hopefully we want to start from this series where we start off with a win and start off well.”

“If we can start off the series with a win, chances are we’re going to win the series. That’s our biggest challenge as a team,” Bravo said.

The West Indies will fancy their chances against a New Zealand side ranked just one point above them at seventh.

In fact, yet again, the West Indies have found themselves as favourites to win, especially with a side packed with the likes of Bravo, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, some of the biggest names in the game’s shorter format.

Bravo was quick to dismiss being called the favourites, but said the Windies were confident of getting the better of the Black Caps.

“When we play higher ranked team, a lot of teams write us off before a ball is bowled and now we’re in a position where we’re playing against a team that is similar in terms of rankings, people will think it is easy for us,” Bravo said.

“I don’t think we are favourites. New Zealand have a good team. The two sides are ranked one away from each other so we can anticipate a good series.

“We won’t take any team lightly. We have to concentrate on what we have to do as a team and also what we have to do to improve and move up on a team.”

The West Indies will take heart from their performance against World number one-ranked Australia earlier this year when they played superbly to snatch a 2-2 tie in the five-match series.

They subsequently faltered against England to lose 0-2 in the three-match series last month but Bravo said the side had buried the ghosts of the English tour.

“In the Australia series we had a fantastic series … they are the number one team and we did well playing at home,” he said.

“We went to England and obviously conditions were different and we just weren’t on the ball there. It was a difficult series for us as a team but we bounced back quickly… in the two games (Twenty20s) against New Zealand.”