ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 23, 2021

Kieron Pollard

Sheikh Zayed Stadium

West Indies

Media Conference

England 56/4 (8.2) - West Indies 55)14.2)

Q. Tough start.

KIERON POLLARD: Obviously we didn't bat well. It's disappointing to start a tournament like that, being defending champions, but having said that, something that we just need to accept. We accept it. We take full responsibility for what transpired out there and for us, games like these, you try to bin it as quickly as possible and then you move on.

Q. Do you think it will at all alter (mic interference) the batsmen, tried to get up as much as possible, and stole your game plan?

KIERON POLLARD: Well, that's something obviously I can't answer right now. The game has just sort of finished. For us we just need to go back, sort of look at our performances, look at the way we have gotten out and see if we can find maybe a medium as to how we need to approach it.

But having said that, I think for us, it's very, very important that a game like this you sort of forget. You try to dig too much into it. Then you might unearth some things that you don't really want to. For us, it's pretty simple: Accept and move on.

Q. You left Roston Chase out for this game. Does he still have a big role to play in the tournament, potentially bringing up the left-handers in the middle?

KIERON POLLARD: You can look at it, also, Roston, he had an opportunity to be selected in the squad. We thought this is the best 11 to go out and try to win the first game for us.

Again not because we have lost, we have been demolished in our eight-and-point-something overs that we do and we make 50-odd mean that there is going to be wholesale changes. Because as we tend to know, when you are not playing or sitting on the bench, your stock tends to go up a lot higher.

For us as I said we need to try to come back strong. At the end of the day it's not about time -- it's not about time, it's the start of the player, think about this one should play or shouldn't play. For us, we accept it and as I said, we move on.

Q. Can you speak about Moeen Ali's spell as well, do you think you lost the game in those four overs he bowled at the start?

KIERON POLLARD: I wouldn't say he lost the game. Obviously we lost a couple wickets early up, and we expected the guys just to bat a couple overs, try to knock it around and see if we can set it up for the back end and. But we kept losing wickets and hence the reason Bravo went up as you see, to bring up the right-handers just to knock it around a bit, or we could have sent one of our forwards just to still try to hit the ball.

Again it didn't work today and these things happen. If he had gone out there and built a partnership and gotten 150-, 160-odd -- the request might not have been asked. He has done it before.

And for us, we have a plan of how we want to play this game and as I said, it didn't come off today. We didn't play well. We didn't bat well. But the positive is the intensity that we had on the field for that 8.2 overs I think was good, and again, get an grasping it with both hands, I think we look at it and we move on.

Q. Would you say it was more a case of really poor decision-making by the West Indies or genuinely a good display on the field by England?

KIERON POLLARD: Again as I said, it's not something that we are proud of as a team. We got out. But I'm not going to go into what it is or how it is.

Obviously just plain to see, 55-odd for the international team I think is unacceptable and we accept that. So we revisit and hopefully welcome back stronger. At the end of it, once we have life, we have opportunity to do things better. A lot of different things are happening around, whereas people don't have opportunities to put things right. For us, we have an opportunity to, so we take a couple days,.

And we see how it goes in a couple days' time.

Q. How was the pitch?

KIERON POLLARD: I think it was a good wicket to bat on. The ball was coming on to the bat present I decently and it had something there -- I think up the space and bowl well but there was no demons in it. Again, I said, a good batting display -- a good batting track, sorry, but not a great batting display.