The explosive batsmen in the line-up are yet to make their presence felt, and West Indies would pray for them to fire in their win-or-bust encounter versus Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

With two losses and just a win so far, the defending champions must beat Sri Lanka in order to keep their T20 World Cup campaign alive.

For the Sri Lankans, though, the game provides an opportunity to finish their campaign on a high as three defeats from four games so far have ended their hopes of making the last-four stage.

Bowling hasn’t really been a concern for the two-time champions West Indies. Rather, it’s their batting that seems to be over-reliant on big strokes. This six-or-nothing kind of batting has been one of the main reasons behind the Windies’ defeats to England and South Africa.

It had every possibility of costing them the Bangladesh game too. But then, the fact that Bangladesh are temperamentally far from strong also contributed to the Windies winning last week in Sharjah.

Conditions for strokeplay, though, will be comparatively better at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, which should suit the likes of Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle and Shimron Hetmyer.

Skipper Kieron Pollard remains upbeat about his team’s prospects. He is recovering well from the injury he sustained during the previous game and remains optimistic of playing on Thursday.

“In this thing called life and sport, nothing is impossible,” he said on Wednesday.

“What I can safely say is yes, the guys are confident...

“It’s our opportunity now, guys can sort of take off the shackles that has been holding us back in terms of our batting performance. There’s no secret about that,” he added.