Denesh Ramdin thinks that underestimating West Indies' power hitters will be a severe mistake for the opposition come the World T20 in Bangladesh and they are hoping to reinforce this with strong batting performances in the remaining two T20s against England.
Ramdin said that while many were touting their spin attack as the focal point of the team, especially on the back of an impressive first outing in Barbados, the West Indies batsmen were more than capable of setting the tournament on fire, as they did when they were crowned champions on 2012.
"We are a very good T20 team, with explosive guys at the top and lower order. Chris Gayle back in our team is a boost for us," he said. "Our batting has been letting us down recently but in this format, once the guys get going you know how dangerous they are. We have batting that can chase down any score."
He believes West Indies have an all-round bowling unit that will also be able to stifle their challengers in Bangladesh and, following on from team-mate Marlon Samuels, singled out Samuel Badree as a player that many will be taking note of. He labelled him as "just as mesmerizing" as Sunil Narine, having played alongside Badree for many years in the Trinidad and Tobago team.
"The spin factor is going to be big. Marlon Samuels also did a great job for us in the middle after Sunil came off yesterday. We are in good bowling form. We just need to put runs on the board or restrict teams to as little as possible and chase it down with our powerful batting line-up. We have Ravi Rampaul, [Dwayne] Bravo and of course, Narine, who can defend any total."
On his personal form, he said that it was rewarding to see his glovework improve and be recognised, particularly with three stumpings against England on Sunday, but he added that it was a bigger plus to see his scores stepping up. He said that he was disappointed with his performances behind the stumps in the one-day series but gained some comfort from achieving the milestone of becoming the first West Indies wicketkeeper to score an ODI century.
He also added that it would be dangerous to discount England as they possessed "game-changers" such as Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. Ramdin said that despite the loss of Kevin Pietersen, which was comparable to "us losing Chris Gayle", England, as past winners of the World T20 in the West Indies in 2010, were well equipped to come back strong and mount a challenge in Bangladesh.