Trinidad and Tobago spinner Sunil Narine wants to cap off 2011 with some good performances for the West Indies senior team as they take on hosts India in five one-day international matches bowling off next Tuesday.
It has been a bumper year for the 23-year-old off-spinner who made his 50-over and Twenty20 debut for T&T this year and was impressive in both formats of the game.
Since making his national debut in 2009, the Queen’s Park Cricket Club player never really commanded a place in the Trinidad and Tobago squad but was included in the team for the 2009 and 2011 Champions League T20 campaigns. Narine did not play in 2009 but emerged as one of the leading wicket-takers in this year’s competition.
He followed up with the most wickets in the Regional Super50 Tournament and was drafted into the West Indies “A” team, where he showed promise with both bat and ball.
Narine took 15 wickets in the five matches he played in the Regional Super50, while for West Indies “A”, he scored 40 not out and 26 not out in their tense one-wicket win over Bangladesh “A” in their four-day “Test” match earlier this month.
“It is a good feeling for me to actually be doing well and seeing the rewards for my good performances. Just being able to go out there and represent West Indies at the senior level will be great achievement for me,” Narine told the Express during a T&T training session at the National Cricket Centre in Balmain, Couva on Monday.
He added: “It is another big surprise for me knowing that I am not a permanent member of the Trinidad and Tobago team. It has definitely been a good year for me, going out there and performing well for Trinidad and Tobago and then being called up to the senior West Indies team.
“But capping off an excellent year would be being able to perform well for West Indies and helping them win matches,” Narine insisted.
The spinner is also looking to learn as much as possible from the senior players on the tour and knows he will have to take his game to a higher level to be successful on the international stage.
“It is a big step. It is a higher level of cricket, but I am confident that I can make a successful transition. You just have to go out there, keep calm and cool and play your cricket. I am taking it game by game. I am just looking to be myself and do what I am accustomed doing and hopefully that will pull me through.
“My confidence is high right now so I just have to rally with that and hopefully I will have some good performances in India,” Narine concluded.
Narine and Jason Mohammed were the only new faces on the West Indies limited overs squad which also includes T&T players Adrian Barath, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin and Ravi Rampaul.
(Source http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Narine_ready_for_higher_level-134373768.html)
