When the best player on tour is injured, the captain and the team management tend to get nervous. Perhaps many captains would think, or even say in private, that they would do anything to ensure that he or she plays the next game. Carlos Brathwaite, West Indies' T20I captain, said this about Shai Hope, whose back-to-back unbeaten centuries have been the visitors' only batting beacon in Bangladesh in the past week.
Hope felt dizzy after receiving a blow to the head during Friday's third ODI in Sylhet, but he trained with the squad on Sunday, ahead of the first T20I.
"Shai [Hope] is in beautiful batting form, fresh off two back-to-back unbeaten centuries," Brathwaite said. "Even if Shai has to play with a stretcher, I will volunteer to carry the stretcher between the wickets. He is fine and in good spirits. He is out practising, so hopefully he is close to 100 percent. As long as he is alive, he will play tomorrow."
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Brathwaite's side will further be boosted by the return of Evin Lewis, who missed the India tour and the Bangladesh ODIs. "He is one of the better batsmen in the world. For the last 18 months or so, he has three T20I hundreds and also centuries in regional and franchise cricket all over the world.
"He is a definite plus for any team. It is a positive to have in our side. Hopefully he will deliver some big performances which will help us win the game and the series," Brathwaite said.
But of course, injuries and unavailability have been a major bother for the West Indies. Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell and Jason Holder are injured, while Chris Gayle has been busy with league commitments.
"We have had some informal chats about it. We can't do much as players if we continue to lose. We don't have much power or say. The group of players needs to find a way to win, regardless of who is and who is not selected. When we start to win, we can pull on experiences on learning how to win games.
"Evidently you become more experienced and confident, and start creating your own brand of cricket. We haven't been able to, because of a lot of chopping and changing for different reasons. The feeling in the dressing room is that whenever a team is picked for a tour, we put our heads together as a unit, and find a way to win games. Once we do that, West Indies cricket will find a way to the top, whichever format," he said.
Brathwaite believes West Indies' favourite format can get them the much-needed win in this tour, which would also be a bounce back from their wretched year in T20Is. They have won just two out of 12 games in 2018.
"The people back home deserve a Christmas gift," he said. "We hope to close out the year with a win. We still think T20 is our premier format. We obviously haven't had the results to be in the recent past proud of. But here's a chance to turn things around and ending 2018 in a good way."