Pollard plans to silence the doubters

West Indies entered the World Cup ranked No. 9, below Bangladesh for the first time, and without a win against a Test nation in 20 months. Not surprisingly, they didn't feature too high in most lists of favourites, a fact which hasn't pleased their all-rounder Kieron Pollard.

"We have a lot of things that are driving us at the moment," Pollard told reporters in Chennai on Tuesday. "One of the things is that we were actually written off when we came here from the start, something that's at the back of our minds, we are just using that as a motivating factor to go forward."

West Indies and Pollard have bounced back strongly after the opening defeat to South Africa in which the allrounder was shot out for a golden duck by Dale Steyn. West Indies have reeled off three comfortable victories, while Pollard has showed off his brand of power-hitting with two match-transforming half-centuries.

There was further good news for West Indies with their experienced and explosive opener Chris Gayle recovering from the abdominal strain that kept him out of the game against Ireland on Friday. "Chris is coming along pretty good," Pollard said. "He should be fit for the game against England, so we should have a full squad of 15 guys the team management will have to choose from."

England need a victory on Thursday against West Indies to remain in the race for the quarter-finals, but will have the added disadvantage of coming up against Ottis Gibson, who now mentors West Indies after relinquishing his job as England bowling coach just over a year ago. "It will be useful for us [having Gibson on board], the information he can pass on to us, because he was the bowling coach for them," Pollard said. "But doesn't matter how much information he passes, it's a matter of going out there and executing whatever he says."

Pollard has shot to prominence as one of the world's premier Twenty20 players, and is much sought after in the domestic T20 leagues, but his performances for West Indies haven't been similarly spectacular so far. His batting average touched 20 for the first time following his murderous 55-ball 94 against Ireland, but he doesn't accept the criticism of his one-day form.

"If you watch the opportunities I have got before, it was lower down the order," he said. "Even in Twenty20 cricket I had the same 5-6 overs to bat, if I had got 30-35 overs to bat and haven't been performing at the best, then you can say I haven't been doing well or whatever it is."

Both of his brutal innings in the World Cup have come against the Associate nations in the group, so the question whether he has adjusted to the different demands of the one-day game remains unanswered. If he does settle the lingering doubts on Thursday, however, England will be catching an early flight home.