LONDON, England (CMC) — Stylish middle order batsman Marlon Samuels says he is always keen on playing the anchor role for West Indies as they prepare to face India in their second Group B match of the Champions Trophy today.

First ball is 10:30 am (5:30 am Eastern Caribbean Time/4:30 am Jamaica Time).

“I’m batting at four, so I’ve been carrying a lot of load for the team. I’ll definitely continue to play that role and take a lot of responsibility,” said Samuels.

“I’ve been playing the anchor role; I don’t mind that. I have to bat through the innings”.

A win against India, the current world champions in ODI, could land West Indies with a place in the semi-finals of the tournament.

The Windies lead the group following their victory over Pakistan last Friday and are returning to the Oval with confidence.

“Whether I have to speed it up or slow it down depends on the situation. A lot of it is a thinking process,” he said.

“At the moment mine is the anchor role so I have to bat through, but I can make up for it at the end. There are still a lot of shots that I can play.”

Samuels has made a brilliant comeback to the game with some superb performances in the middle-order.

Earlier this year he was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year, following his outstanding batting on the West Indies tour of England last year.

“I am determined to score a bit quicker, rotate the strike as much as possible. In Test cricket you spend a lot of time out there and wait for the bad balls,” he said.

“It is not so much of a difference batting between both formats. The ball moves around. The hardest part is to get a start in England. Once you get a start, things get easy”.

The stylish right-hander has scored four ODI centuries with some of his best knocks coming against India.

He made his maiden century (110 not out) at Vijaywada back in 2002 and also scored an equally impressive 98 off 95 balls in Chennai in 2007.

“We are both on two points at the top of the group and a win would take us closer to the semi-finals, so there is a lot to play for when we meet them,” said the 32-year-old Samuels

“We have powerhitters, batsmen who can bat through, allrounders and very good spinners like (Sunil) Narine. So it’s a good balance. We’re just getting stronger.”

West Indies (likely): Chris Gayle, Johnson Charles, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo (capt), Dinesh Ramdin (wk), Sunil Narine, Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul.

India (likely): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt, wk), Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav.