BRIDGETOWN, April 13: West Indies skipper Brian Lara was forced to defend the controversial three changes made to the team which slumped to defeat against South Africa on Tuesday.

West Indies dropped pace bowler Jerome Taylor while keeping faith with Ian Bradshaw and Corey Collymore.

Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Smith were also axed in favour of Devon Smith and debutant batsman Kieron Pollard.

“The fact of the matter is we went for experience. Collymore bowled well on Tuesday,” Lara said. “Bradshaw over the last couple of years has done good service for West Indies cricket and we went for the experience of the guys who sometimes know what to do in critical situations and that was the team that was selected.

“There were other changes. There was young Smith who came in for Dwayne Smith, young Pollard as well. We just tried something different, tried a different combination to see if it would work.”—AFP