Root wary of ‘explosive’ Caribbeans

Joe Root believes that his team is well-prepared ahead of the 'Super 10' stage of World Twenty20 tournament, which begins on Tuesday. He, however, acknowledged that the West Indies -- against whom England will play its first match -- has a lot of "firepower" in its batting.

Joe Root has become England's batting linchpin across all formats and will be a key player in his team's World Twenty20 campaign.

Just about 48 hours before former champions West Indies and England square off at the Wankhede Stadium in their opening World Twenty20 game, the English camp is already weary about the former.

“Extremely explosive,” was batsman >Joe Root ’s prompt response when asked to assess the Caribbean side. “They have got a lot of firepower in their batting order and they can be pretty unpredictable at times. We have got to make sure that the guys have got lots of plans in place to counter that.”

England preferred its big-hitting batsman >Jos Buttler to play for the local Mumbai line-up in its World Twenty20 practice game. The plan was that its pace bowlers prepared well to restrict the onslaught from Chris Gayle and Co.

While the West Indies may end up being the crowd’s favourite, England will take a lot of heart from its preparation ahead of the opener. They overhauled New Zealand in its first warm-up game before giving all its 15 players a chance in the warm-up game on Monday.

Root was extremely satisfied with the team’s build-up. “I think our preparation has been good, we’ve worked extremely hard individually and as a team and when it’s come to games the guys have stepped up and performed under pressure,” he said.

“That’s exactly what we need if we are to be very successful at this tournament. Under pressure, the bowlers performed very well at the death, but now it’s about doing it when it counts. The best thing is we’ve got these experiences to call on when the tournament starts and we’re actually under real pressure when it really matters. Fingers crossed, the guys can take all that confidence forward into the group games.”