Former West Indies captain Kieron Pollard is set to start a new chapter in his decorated cricketing career, as he is expected to join reigning Twenty20 World champions England as a batting consultant ahead of their title defence in the Caribbean and the United States, next year.

According to media reports, Pollard, 36, is expected to impart knowledge of Caribbean conditions and pitches to the England, for the showpiece tournament scheduled for June 4-30.

With the region notorious in recent years for its low, slow pitches, conditions are expected to play a key role in the tournament, and, as such, Pollard's experience of same, will be an asset for England.

The Trinidadian's appointment is expected to flawless, as he is already acquainted with current England captain Jos Buttler with whom he played during a couple of stints with county Somerset, and others, who he would have rubbed shoulders with, in franchise tournaments.

Pollard, who retired from international cricket last year, after a T20 series away to India two months prior. Still, the powerfully built player continues to feature in the global short-format franchise leagues, recently leading New York Strikers to victory in the Abu Dhabi T10.

His vast experience in the T20 format, will also be of value to England, as Pollard has 123 One-Day International and 101 T20 International appearances under his built. Overall, he has featured in 537 T20s, scoring over 12,000 runs, with 300 wickets from his part-time bowling.

Pollard was at the helm when West Indies copped the T20 World Cup title in 2021, to go along with the 2016 title won by a Darren Sammy-led team which he was a part of.

West Indies T20I Captain Rovman Powell praised his team’s ability to perform under pressure to secure a 3-2 series victory over England on Thursday at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.

The West Indies won the first two games of the series relatively comfortably before England produced a pair of magnificent batting performances to tie the series heading into the Thursday’s decider.

The West Indians first restricted the English to 132 all out in 19.3 overs, their lowest score of the series.

The hosts then held their nerve to reach 133-6 with four balls to spare, securing another series win under Powell’s leadership in international cricket’s shortest format.

“I think we played very well today. After England came back in the series and put us under pressure, I think the guys responded like champions,” Powell said in a post-match interview.

He especially credited his bowlers for keeping player of the series, Phil Salt, in check. Salt hit hundreds in both the third and fourth T20Is. He made 38 on Thursday to finish the series with 331 runs.

"It was very important for us to control him. Yesterday we sat in our team room and tried to have some one on one discussions with the guys to try our best to come up with collective plans to control him. For the last two games they scored 70 in the powerplay to totally write us off," Powell said.

Powell added that he feels like his side are well prepared for next year’s T20 World Cup but mentioned that there’s still work to be done, particularly in the bowling department.

“I think we are prepared but we still have areas we need to sharpen up, especially our bowling. Two games back to back where England beat us badly as a bowling unit. Hopefully, over the next few months we can sharpen up and get those areas sorted,” Powell said.

Powell also heaped praise on opponents England, noting that the reigning World T20 Champions have an excellent chance of defending their title next year.

“England is a world class team and they have world class players to come into their squad so that is always going to boost them. All they need to do is get familiar with the conditions. Because they are such a quality team, if they get familiar with conditions they will be difficult to beat,” he said.

“We realized something with the English batters. Once you put them on the good wickets, they’re very good but when the pitch starts assisting the bowlers, it becomes a little bit tricky for everyone. For us Caribbean players, we’ve been playing on bad wickets for such a long time so we know how to play on it,” he added.

The West Indies’ next T20I assignment will be a three-match away series against Australia from February 9-13.

Reece Topley admitted he felt deflated at England losing their T20 series decider against the West Indies.

Two days after compiling their highest T20 total of 267 for three, England subsided to 132 all out in 19.3 overs on the same pitch at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba, which was much trickier to bat on.

Despite the best efforts of their bowlers England tumbled to a four-wicket defeat as the Windies were grateful for Shai Hope’s efficient run-a-ball 43 not out to get them home with four balls to spare.

On a trip that doubled as a reconnaissance mission for the 2024 T20 World Cup, England can take some positives away, not least from battling back from 2-0 down to set up a winner-takes-all showdown.

But a World Cup group stage exit has now been followed by ODI and T20 series defeats against the Windies and Topley acknowledged there can be no excuses at leaving the Caribbean empty-handed.

“I was so excited to turn up here because it was basically like a final and those are the games you want to play in and be on the right side of,” he said.

“It is gutting. There’s a lot of talk about Test cricket being the priority and there’s some faces missing here but when we come up against the guys, they’ve got a lot of their main players here.

“The bottom line is you want to win this series, especially as a player where white-ball cricket is my Test cricket so I want to win every series I can for England.”

This was the Windies’ fourth successive series win over England in all formats, built on Gudakesh Motie’s three for 24 with fellow slow left-armer Akeal Hosein taking two for 20.

Phil Salt followed up his back-to-back hundreds by top-scoring with 38 off 22 balls, only prised from the crease by a peach from Motie, who produced drift then sharp turn to uproot middle stump.

England struggled from then on and lost their last five wickets in 19 balls for 11 runs although Topley’s two for 17 and Adil Rashid’s two for 21 made sure the chase was anything but a cakewalk.

“The other day there was another wicket made up next to our strip but it was their decision to play on the same wicket again, probably knowing it brings spin into the game a little bit more,” Topley said.

“It’s been an amazing series, both teams have played some unbelievable cricket.

“We’ve taken a lot from this series, there’s the World Cup here next year but there’s also some fresh faces that have been exposed to top-level international cricket and some have taken to it really well.”

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While his efforts were in vain, Topley has enhanced his case for the T20 World Cup next June after being overlooked for the first two matches following the broken finger which ended his World Cup early.

“Obviously no one likes to be left out and I was thinking about why I was left out for the first two,” Topley said.

“But then I had a point to prove, almost, coming back in and I’d like to think that maybe I’d have justified being selected after the third game.”

Windies captain Rovman Powell was satisfied his team held their nerve after back-to-back defeats but admitted they are not the finished article for the T20 World Cup they are co-hosting.

“I think we are prepared for the World Cup but there are still areas where we need to sharpen up, especially our bowling,” Powell said. “Two games back-to-back England beat us badly as a bowling group.

“There is a lot of work for us to do, so hopefully over the next few months we can sharpen up and get those areas sorted.”

England were left in a spin as their hopes of recording a T20 series victory over the West Indies were undermined by slow left-armers Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein.

Two days on from recording their highest ever T20 score, England came up against a more disciplined bowling performance by their opponents on the same pitch at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.

Motie was the pick of the attack with three for 24, which included a peach of a delivery to bowl England dangerman Phil Salt, who followed up his back-to-back hundreds with 38 off 22 balls.

Salt was undone by drift then sharp turn as he lost his middle stump, although he was still England’s top-scorer for a third game in a row as they were all out for 132 in 19.3 overs in this series decider.

Five of England’s top-six departed to spin, with Hosein claiming two for 20, on a pitch that provided some help. Liam Livingstone (28) and Moeen Ali (23) put on a stodgy 40 for the tourists in the middle.

Where they had clubbed 20 sixes in their 267 for three on Tuesday, England amassed just five this time.

It was a particularly shabby end to their innings as they lost their last five wickets in 19 balls for the addition of just 11 runs, with all-rounder Andre Russell taking two dismissals in two balls.

England could not even bat out their overs as Sam Curran, one of only five batters to pass double figures, clothed Jason Holder to long-off to depart for 12.

West Indies captain Rovman Powell is backing his team to bounce back from back-to-back defeats and secure a Twenty20 series victory over England, as they head into the decisive contest of the five-match affair in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday. 

Powell's side which was on a high after they opened up an early two-nil series lead with four-wicket and 10-run victories, was brought down to earth in the third and fourth encounters that England won by seven wickets and 75 runs respectively.

On both losing occasions, England's opening batsman Phil Salt hammered centuries, while West Indies batting was sub-par, as they lost wickets at regular intervals when gathering some semblance of momentum.

Still, Powell saw some positives, particularly in the most recent contest on Tuesday when Andre Russell made a brisk 51, as they were bowled out for 192 chasing 267.

“I think the way Andre Russell played, I think he give us some impetus at the back end of the innings, and it showed us that if we had batted properly, or if they had scored just a little bit less runs, we would have been able to get it," Powell said.

“I think the intensity at which we start was very low, and you know in a T20 game when you start with such low intensity it's very difficult to find a rhythm, and I think that's cost us. They posted 260 which was a very, very big total. If you're going to chase 260, everything has to go right and it's not it's not very often you see those things happen, so it was it was always going to be uphill task," he added.

With things now squared at 2-2, Powell is well aware that his regional side will not only have to learn from the defeats, but more importantly, reproduce performances from the top of the series.

In fact, he believes the situation requires some serious introspection, as it is imperative that they improve, both individually and collectively.

“We have to do some introspection. You know, as individuals, we have to look into ourselves and see if we have done ourselves justice, and if we haven't done ourselves justice, then it's obvious that we haven't done the team justice. So, some introspection and see if we can come up with some better plans to fix what's happening," Powell reasoned.

“I think in all the games the batting has stand up, hopefully the batting can stand up for the final game, but the bowlers have to come to the party. It has been disappointing for the last few games how we have executed as bowling group, so this final game provides an opportunity for us to get that right," he noted.

That said, the Jamaican expressed confidence that whichever 11 players take the field at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium for the day/night clash scheduled for 3:00pm, will represent with much gusto.

“, we always feel as if when we put guys on the park, it's the best combination for that game. We'll sit down, revise the plan, see if we can come up with different plans and if we come up with different plans, we'll find the players who can execute that plan," Powell declared.

"It's a final, and when it comes to final situation West Indies normally triumph so hopefully, we can pull it off," he ended.

The current five-match Twenty20 series between West indies and England in the Caribbean, has triggered changes in the ICC World rankings for the format.

This, as West Indies batsman Brandon King climbed into the top 10, and England spinner Adil Rasheed assumed the new World number one ranking.

King, who stroked an unbeaten 82 in Barbados that gave West Indies a 2-0 series lead, is up six places to sixth, while Nicholas Pooran is up two spots to 12th.

Rashid has been rewarded for his good consistent form in the Caribbean, as he moved up two places to take the top spot from Afghanistan's Rashid Khan. West Indies spinner Akeal Hosein is the sixth-ranked T20 bowler.

Meanwhile, there remains only one West Indies player holding a top 20 position in the latest One-day Internation (ODI) rankings, with West Indies skipper Shai Hope being the highest rated at 11th on the batting list.

Phil Salt was taken aback at being overlooked in the Indian Premier League auction but used the snub as motivation to inspire England to a T20 series-levelling victory over the West Indies.

While England team-mates Chris Woakes and Harry Brook saw their bank balances given a healthy top-up after going under the hammer in Dubai on Tuesday, there were no takers for Salt among IPL franchises.

Salt made a couple of fifties in his debut season earlier this year, striking at 163.91 in nine matches for Delhi Capitals, so he was aggrieved to wake up in the Caribbean and find he had attracted no bids.

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But three days on from a match-winning century in Grenada, Salt thumped an England T20 record 119 off 57 balls in Trinidad as the tourists set up a winner-takes-all showdown at the same venue on Thursday.

“It was a confusing morning,” Salt said after England’s 75-run thumping win in the fourth T20. “I expected to be picked up, having gone there last year and done well and after the year that I’ve had.

“I was a bit confused but it can happen. It’s part of a lottery of an auction, it happens in draft processes as well. There’s no bad cricketers on the list at the IPL.

“There’s a few lads in our dressing room who are going to have a very good Christmas and I’m over the moon for them.

“We’re very lucky with what we do. There have been a few things recently that have maybe put it in perspective. I’m just here enjoying my cricket and cracking on.”

As for whether he channelled his frustration at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba to underpin England’s highest ever T20 total of 267 for three, Salt admitted his IPL omission may have played its part.

“It was probably a little bit of it, subconsciously,” he said, before reiterating: “I’m very aware of how lucky I am to be here playing cricket.”

The foundations for England’s gargantuan total were laid by a second successive century partnership between Salt and Jos Buttler, who contributed 55 to a 117-run stand in 9.5 overs before holing out.

Liam Livingstone thumped the last of England’s 20 sixes – equalling their record in T20s – with half of them coming from Salt, who is the first man from the country to make more than one ton in the format.

Salt opens the batting for Lancashire in the Vitality Blast and for Manchester Originals in The Hundred alongside England captain Buttler, who apparently keeps his junior partner in check.

“When we’re in the middle, it’s more getting me back in my box,” Salt said. “It’s either ‘you’re doing really well’ or ‘drop it down a gear’.

“We’ve had some good conversations away from the game, we’ve enjoyed spending time around each other as a group so we’re going nicely.”

The Windies were left with not much choice but to hit the ground running from ball one and while they themselves collected 14 sixes of their own, they were all out for 192 in 15.3 overs.

Reece Topley claimed three for 37 while there were a couple of wickets apiece for Sam Curran and Rehan Ahmed and one each for Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid as England levelled the series at 2-2.

“The boys have really pulled together and shown what a good team we are,” Salt added. “To win back-to-back games and force the decider in a couple of days’ time, I’m chuffed.”

Phil Salt followed up his match-winning century in Grenada with a record-breaking hundred in Trinidad as England amassed their highest-ever T20 score, putting the West Indies to the sword.

Having been overlooked at the Indian Premier League auction on Tuesday, Salt smashed 10 sixes and seven fours in his 119 off 57 balls at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba in England’s 267 for three.

Salt’s belligerent knock is the highest by an England batter – beating the previous record held by Alex Hales on 116 – as the tourists took a giant stride towards levelling the five-match series at 2-2.

England’s previous best score in this format was the 241 for three they posted against New Zealand in Napier in November 2019 but Jos Buttler’s side blew that total out of the water.

Buttler registered 55 off 29 balls, putting on 117 in 9.5 overs with Salt, while Liam Livingstone added an unbeaten 54 off 21 deliveries as England racked up the fifth highest score in this format.

Four days on from his 109 not out at the weekend which helped England keep the series alive, Salt transferred his form to another Caribbean island, bringing up back-to-back tons off 48 balls.

There was no respite for the Windies on a hot and sticky afternoon, with T20 debutant Matthew Forde leaking 54 from three overs and Jason Holder and Gudakesh Motie each conceding 55 from four overs.

Akeal Hosein was the pick of the attack with one for 36 from his allocation but the hosts have been left it all to do to stop the series from going to a decider – no team has chased down more than 259.

Australia fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have become the most expensive players ever sold at the Indian Premier League auction, smashing the record held by England all-rounder Sam Curran.

Starc has not played in the IPL since 2015 and the left-arm quick’s return to the fray drew a bidding war that ended in an unprecedented bid of £2.34million (24.75 crore rupees) from Kolkata Knight Riders.

Cummins had earlier been picked up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for just under £2million (20.5 crore), with both fees eclipsing the £1.77m Punjab Kings paid for Curran last year. Starc and Cummins had both signed up with a base price of less than £200,000.

Cummins is making his comeback to the tournament after a one-year absence to focus on his international commitments, during which he has captained Australia to glory in the World Test Championship and 50-over World Cup on Indian soil.

While those successes placed a premium on the available Australian talent, England’s terrible World Cup campaign saw their stock fall on the trading floor in Dubai.

Veteran Chris Woakes landed a deal worth a fraction under £400,000 as he joined team-mates Curran and Liam Livingstone at Punjab Kings, while Harry Brook was snapped up for around £380,000 by Delhi Capitals.

Brook had been released after one season of a £1.3m deal with Sunrisers and the Yorkshireman settled for a healthy but much-reduced payday.

He hit one superb century in his first IPL campaign but was otherwise badly short of runs with just 190 in 11 matches.

Sunrisers also splurged on another Australian, Travis Head, who capped a stellar year with a match-winning 137 in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. He cost around £645,000 (6.8 crore) as he returned to the tournament for the first time since 2017.

West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell was the first player to go under the hammer at the event in Dubai and fetched a surprisingly lavish £700,000 bid from Rajasthan Royals, while New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell scooped the biggest cheque of his career when he went to Chennai Super Kings for £1.3million.

CSK also signed Mitchell’s fellow Kiwi Rachin Ravindra, the breakout star of the World Cup, for a modest £170,000.

Australia captain Pat Cummins has landed a record £1.94million contract at the Indian Premier League auction with England pair Harry Brook and Chris Woakes picking up deals worth just under £400,000.

Cummins sat out the 2023 tournament to focus on international cricket but became even hotter property after leading his side to the World Test Championship and last month’s 50-over World Cup on Indian soil.

Four teams vied for the fast bowler’s signature and Sunrisers Hyderabad ended up paying 20.5 crore rupees, eclipsing the previous high of 18.5 crore (£1.77m) Punjab Kings paid for English all-rounder Sam Curran last year.

Cummins, 30, had entered with a base price of just under £200,000 and saw the bidding war up his fee by a factor of 10.

Sunrisers had plenty of budget to play with having released Brook after one season of a £1.3m deal, with the Yorkshireman picking up a healthy but much-reduced payday with the Capitals.

He hit one superb century in his first IPL campaign but was otherwise badly short of runs with just 190 in 11 matches.

Woakes was later drafted for just under £400,000 by Punjab, joining his England team-mates Curran and Liam Livingstone.

Sunrisers also splurged on Cummins’ fellow Australian Travis Head, who capped a stellar year with a match-winning 137 in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. He cost around £645,000 (6.8 crore) as he returned to the tournament for the first time since 2017.

West Indies T20 captain Rovman Powell was the first player to go under the hammer at the event in Dubai and fetched a surprisingly lavish £700,000 bid from Rajasthan Royals, while New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell scooped the biggest cheque of his career when he went to Chennai Super Kings for £1.3million.

CSK also signed Mitchell’s fellow Kiwi Rachin Ravindra, the breakout star of the World Cup, for a modest £170,000.

England batter Harry Brook has been signed by the Delhi Capitals for four crore rupees (around £380,000) at the Indian Premier League 2024 player mini auction.

The 24-year-old began his first IPL season with Sunrisers Hyderabad but will now make the switch to Delhi and was the second player to be auctioned behind West Indies batter Rovman Powell.

Last year, Sunrisers paid over £1.3million for Brook but he scored just 190 runs in 11 matches in the 2023 season.

West Indies T20I Captain Rovman Powell says he is not concerned with the team’s death bowling heading into Tuesday’s fourth T20I against England at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba.

Phil Salt starred with an unbeaten 109 to help England chase down a mammoth target of 223 to win the third T20I on Saturday in Grenada. As such, the West Indies will enter the fourth game with a 2-1 lead and a chance to clinch the series.

England hit 19 sixes on their way to victory and Powell says his team will be solely focused on bringing that number down for the remainder of the series.

“It comes down to execution. Once we can execute as a bowling group, the six-hitting count will go down so that is what we’re stressing on for the rest of the series,” he said.

 “Skills are very important in T20. Those Yorkers, wide Yorkers and defensive Yorkers are very important, especially when you get good batters on good wickets. If your skillset is not really up to par, you will always find yourself under pressure,” he added.

With that being said, Powell said he is not concerned with his team’s inability to defend totals.

“It’s not of major concern at the moment. All we’re concerned with is to just keep improving in all three areas. As a team, that is what we strive for and once we do that, we’ll be okay,” he said.

A question many people asked after the third game is why Powell opted to go with Andre Russell, who was expensive in his previous three overs, for the last over as opposed to himself, Kyle Mayers or Sherfane Rutherford for the last over with England needing 21 to win.

“When you look on the scheme of things, Russell was going at 10 runs per over and they needed in excess of 20 runs in the last over so I think it was only fair that I give Russell, one of my main bowlers, the final over. Unfortunate things do happen and if the situation did arise in another game, I’d be confident enough for Russell to bowl the final one,” Powell said.

With all that said, Powell says the team is in a good place ahead of Tuesday’s game.

“The conversations have been positive. We’re still in a good place and leading the series. It was just unfortunate that we didn’t come out on top,” he said.

“We went for the series win in our last game and unfortunately came up short. Tomorrow provides another opportunity for us to do that. The guys are upbeat,” he added.

The 30-year-old has yet to lose a series as skipper of the West Indies T20I side and spoke about the key to getting the best out of his players.

“I think it’s just putting players in roles that they are comfortable. We have a very good team with a lot of experience so it’s very important to put players in roles that they are comfortable with. Once you do that then you get the best out of players,” he said.

The Cricket West Indies (CWI) Senior Men’s Selection Panel has made two changes to the 15-member squad ahead of the fourth and fifth T20 Internationals (T20Is) against England.

The Selection Panel is resting fast bowler Alzarri Joseph in consideration of his workload including the forthcoming all-format tour of Australia in January and February. He is replaced in the squad by fellow pacer Oshane Thomas. Johnson Charles, the experienced batter is also called into the squad to replace Shimron Hetmyer.

West Indies currently lead the Series 2-1 after winning the first two T20Is in Barbados and Grenada. England won the third match in Grenada ahead of the two teams travelling to Trinidad for the finale. The West Indies have a chance to clinch the T20I Series on Tuesday 19 December in the fourth encounter at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy. The final match will be played on the Thursday 21 December at the same venue. Both matches are day/night games with the first ball bowled at 4pm local time (3pm Jamaica time).

FULL SQUAD: Rovman Powell (Captain), Shai Hope (Vice-Captain), Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russel, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd and Oshane Thomas.

MATCH SCHEDULE

3 December – 1st CG United ODI: West Indies won by 4 wickets at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua
6 December – 2nd CG United ODI: England won by 6 wickets at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua
9 December - 3rd CG United ODI: West Indies won by 4 wickets at Kensington Oval, Barbados
12 December – 1st T20I: West Indies won by 4 wickets at Kensington Oval, Barbados
14 December – 2nd T20I: West Indies won by 10 runs at National Stadium, Grenada
16 December – 3rd T20I: England won by 7 wickets at National Stadium, Grenada
19 December – 4th T20I at Brian Lara Academy, Trinidad (4pm local time/3pm Jamaica time)
21 December – 5th T20I at Brian Lara Academy, Trinidad (4pm local time/3pm Jamaica time)