When the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup begins next week, West Indies all-rounder Roston Chase sees himself playing a similar role to those played by Marlon Samuels in 2012 and 2016 when the West Indies won ICC World T20 titles over Sri Lanka and England, respectively.

The now-retired Samuels played the role of anchor while scoring 78 from 56 balls in the West Indies’ winning score of 136 for 7 in 2012 and in 2016, scored 85 from 66 balls as the West Indies successfully chased England’s 155 for 6.

In 2021, in a West Indies team filled with power hitters like Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard, Chase believes he can be the man to fill Samuel’s boots as team anchor.

“I see myself playing a similar role,” Chase said while speaking with the media from the West Indies training base in Dubai on Thursday (October 14).

“I played for the St Lucia franchise for the past two years where I come in mostly after the Powerplay and knock it around and pick up the ones and twos and the occasional boundary when the ball is in my area to score so it’s an easy role for me,” he continued, adding, “I like that role and with the power-hitting guys that we have, my role is just to give them the strike and let them do their thing but if the ball is in my area I will put it away.”

Chase had a successful campaign during the 2021 Hero CPL scoring 446 runs for the St Lucia Kings. He averaged an excellent 49.55 runs per innings at an excellent strike rate of 144.33.

He believes that a similar approach to how he played in the CPL should see him scoring many more runs for the West Indies during the World Cup as the Caribbean men go for a third consecutive title.

“Early on in this year’s CPL, the pitches were a bit difficult. They had a lot of grass but the grass was kind of spongy. It wasn’t like even grass for the ball to slide on. The ball was bouncing a bit; that was a bit hard so I just thought that after the first couple of matches I was trying to go at the ball a bit too hard. It was a wicket that you needed time to get in first and then it became easier,” he explained.

“So that is what I told myself after the first couple of games, just give myself a bit of time at the crease and then let my stroke play take over from there,” Chase argued.

“We’ve had three training sessions so far and basically, the pitches have been coming on pretty good. The only issue I see with the pitches is that they’re keeping low, so you probably have to stay low when you’re executing your shots and that should work but the pitches are coming on a lot nicer than the ones we usually get in the CPL, so it should be a bit easier to get some runs,” he added.