No team will take Windies for granted, says Lara

Former West Indies batting maestro Brian Lara believes the Caribbean side remains a feared side in the shortest format but will not be among the favourites for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in Australia.

West Indies are reigning T20 world champions following their conquest at the last World Cup in India three years ago but have since endured a run of poor results, leaving them ninth in the ICC rankings only above the likes of Bangladesh and Scotland.

“Whatever tournament the West Indies are going to, they’ll never be favourites at this point in time … even when we won the two tournaments in the past,” the former West Indies captain pointed out.

“What we do have is the shorter version of the game. A lot of young players that are coming into the team, [Shimron] Hetmyer, [Nicholas] Pooran, they are very, very good in the T20 version, in the limited-overs version of the game.”