Defined roles, calm execution and collective belief have powered West Indies into the Super Eights with four wins and skipper Shai Hope says “clarity” within the group has played a big part in their success thus far in the T20 World Cup.Unlike the all-out attacking approach often associated with them, West Indies have built their innings patiently in this tournament, keeping wickets in hand before exploding in the final overs.”Clarity is the biggest thing, especially in a tournament as big as this,” Hope said after their 42-run win over Italy in their final Group C fixture at Eden Gardens.The two-time champions, who won their last T20 World Cup here at Eden Gardens a decade back before hitting a slump, will now move to Super Eights with fixtures against Zimbabwe, South Africa and India.”When you come into a World Cup, you don’t want to be playing catch-up, especially when you’ve got to basically hit the ground running, especially when you’re playing against some of the better teams in the world.”He said the change is less about tactics and more about defined roles.”I wouldn’t say it’s changed much. It’s more so about the role that I’m given and how we want to play cricket as a West Indian team,” he said.”But I just feel now it’s more so a bit more clarity in terms of the role and the way we want to go about playing our cricket.” That clarity has influenced even his preparation, he said.”If you want to play a particular role or a particular way, then everything has to shift. So I’ve just tailored my training sessions and planning towards that.”One of the key changes has been Shimron Hetmyer promoted to No. 3 from being a finisher, a move that has clicked as the left-hander has scores of 64, 23 and 46 not out in first three matches after falling for one against Italy today.The skipper stressed that in a short tournament, defined roles are very important.”It’s just someone to keep your knees together. Take limited risks, let’s say more so calculated risks, and the other guys around me would play more of a big shot. But that was back then.””It’s not like a bilateral series where you have a couple of losses and win the series 3-2. So clarity was one of the biggest things that we focused on in preparation and making sure every single player, whether the 11 on the day or even the ones on the bench, we’re trying to make sure we have a player fit for each role that we need to execute in the middle.”Despite topping the group, Hope insisted there is no room for complacency.”We’ve got to make sure we are playing our best cricket, regardless of the opposition that we’re playing against. We saw the threat that Italy posed in the competition, so there were no stones left unturned once again today.””There’s always some area that you can improve in every single game. We just can’t look too far ahead. We’ve got to ensure that we focus on what’s in front of us, not necessarily harping on too much on the areas that we fell short in.”He also highlighted the importance of backing teammates through lean phases in a long tournament.”In any sport, everyone’s not going to fire every single day. So especially in team sport, the important thing is when one of your teammates are down, the other guys, you’ve got to ensure we pull them up, pull some slack for them. That’s the way a whole tournament play works,” he said.West Indies will now open their Super Eights campaign against Zimbabwe in Mumbai a side who stunned former champions Australia to seal their place.But Hope said the opposition does not alter their mindset.”Not really. Just in terms of the planning stages, we’ve got to plan for whoever’s in front of us. If it was Namibia, if it was whoever, we’ve got to ensure that what we’re doing is necessary to be ready for the opposition.” Having already played at the Wankhede earlier in the tournament, he felt familiarity could help.”Having the experience of playing in Wankhede would give us a bit more confidence as a team to know what works more so than what doesn’t. But again, cricket plays only there,” he signed off.
