[ad_1]
Melbourne, Australia, CMC – West Indies will use two official warm-up matches to finalize their plans for the key qualifying stage of the Twenty20 World Cup, says head coach Phil Simmons.
The Caribbean will take on the United Arab Emirates at the Junction Oval on Monday (8pm ET yesterday) before taking on the Netherlands at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday at 7pm (4am EST).
“The two warm-ups are about getting things to work together, to get our plans in place, to make sure the players are getting sharper as they go,” Simmons said.
He added: “The atmosphere in the camp was really good. We played two games … we lost two games, but at the same time some of the things we were working on were starting to fall into place and the atmosphere in training camp was really good. .”
West Indies thumped world champions Australia in a two-match series last week, losing three wickets on the Gold Coast and 31 in Brisbane.
After similar results in the Caribbean with New Zealand and India, they have lost a third in a row and they have now won just two of their last 10 T20 internationals.
It’s not the first time the West Indies batsmen have undergone rigorous testing and been found to be lacking, but Simmons said work on that is underway.
“The batsmen understand what we need to add to get where we want to be and they’ve been working hard,” he explained.
“We had a good networking session with everyone and everyone was looking forward to going to practice sessions, getting in the middle and doing what was necessary for the team.
“All the players have been enthusiastic and excited so far, so it’s great to see.”
After the warm-up, the West Indies will face Scotland, Ireland and Zimbabwe in a tricky qualifying match in Group B, with the top two teams from Groups A and B advancing to the main draw.
[ad_2]
Source link