Pooran told to keep batting, captaincy separate

West Indies Assistant Coach, Roddy Estwick has urged new white-ball captain, Nicholas Pooran to separate his leadership role from that of batsman in order for him to have a clear focus in the upcoming One-Day International series against the Netherlands and Pakistan.

The 26-year-old was recently appointed to lead the squad following the abrupt retirement of Trinidadian Kieron Pollard recently.

Pooran is also one of white-ball unit’s leading batsman, a role Estwick said he did not want to be compromised by the player’s leadership responsibilities.

Estwick told Pooran in batting, you would know your role so you go and bat and do your job.

“When Pooran is batting, he is not captain — that is one one of his biggest challenges. When he is batting, he has to think like a batsman. He has to put the team first to make sure that he too is also executing the game plan and try not to captain when he’s batting. You leave the captaincy when he’s on  the field and when he’s batting, he will get the information that’s relayed to him as well, so he just has to execute what he is supposed to do,” Estwick said.

Pooran leads a relatively inexperienced side on both tours and he will not have the luxury of leaning on experienced players for advice.

Experienced allrounder Jason Holder, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis and T20 superstars Andre Russell and Sunil Narine are out of the two squads.