WC spots at stake during NZ tour
-West Indies coach Phil Simmons
With the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) T20 World Cup competition shifted to next year, West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons, sees the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand as a chance for players to push for spots in the squad.
Simmons, during a recent interview with the media, said that preparation for the World Cup will not start this upcoming series, having already started back in January.
“I think we put January as the start [to our road to the World Cup], we played a few against Ireland and then we had to play against Sri Lanka and we put January as the beginning of it because originally it was supposed to be this year, it was supposed to be actually around now but because of all what is going on around the world it’s been put to next year,” Simmons stated.
The former West Indies all-rounder said that it was just about maintaining the plans they had set out at the start of the year which will benefit a number of players on tour since they still have a chance to vie for spots in the World Cup side.
“We are just going to continue how we plan the preparation going forward and in this series especially there are a few guys who weren’t in that team in Sri Lanka and they would be trying to push themselves because we are missing two of the main all-rounders and guys will be trying to push themselves into the final 15 for next year so we have already started to build towards that,” Simmons said.
Meanwhile, looking at the series holistically, Simmons contended that it would be “a bit difficult” to prepare with a few key members of the squad, including captain Kieron Pollard only joining the side on the day of the first match. These players include all of the squad members currently taking part in the Indian Premier League.
Nevertheless, Simmons saw the positive in this situation.
“Preparation is difficult but it’s going to be good because of the eight guys we have here with us,” Simmons told reporters while adding, “It’s a little bit difficult this time because when the main T20 guys get here they are in isolation until the morning of the first game so it’s a little bit difficult from that point of view but the plus is they are coming from playing in a high quality tournament so they will be sharp and the guys that are here with us, we’ve got to get them up to that sharpness level so that when we meet on the 27th as a full squad, everybody is on the same page.”
T20 squad: Kieron Pollard (captain), Fabian Allen, Romario Shepherd, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, Shimron Hetmyer, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers,
Rovman Powell, Keemo Paul, Nicholas Pooran, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr, Kesrick Williams.
Caption: West Indies captain, Kieron Pollard (second from right) having a word
with Shimron Hetmyer (extreme right), Keemo Paul ( left) and Sherfane Rutherford (partially blocked) after an IPL match.