The three-match ODI series between West Indies and India is scheduled to begin on Friday in Port of Spain.
The Indian team enters the tournament with a winning mentality, while the West Indies team faces a batting crisis after losing the last three matches.
All three ODIs will be played at Queen’s Park Oval after which the teams switch format but stay in Trinidad for the first T20 International at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.
From there it’s on to St Kitts for two games before the five-match series concludes in the United States with two fixtures at Lauderhill in Florida.
The West Indies have struggled to bat for full 50 overs in the last couple of years and head coach Phil Simmons said that is one area of the game they would look to improve on in the three ODIs against India.
“The main thing is how we bat our 50 overs…we have to bat 50 overs and put our innings together and partnerships together,” Simmons told reporters in the pre-series press conference.
“Somebody has to be looking to score a hundred and hold the team together. Batting-wise that is it,” he added.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons shared his thoughts about the tournament and he said about the pitches in the previous matches.
“We don’t want to make excuses. In the last game, we showed what we should have shown in the first two games, not hiding the fact they were bad cricket wickets on the whole.”
Also, after losing the third match, the captain also mentioned that the pitch was the reason for the loss of the series.
“I don’t know if the captains have any say in the preparations of pitches but I guess it’s not that difficult to see that we want good cricket pitches. You don’t need scientists to see that.”
Head coach Simmons said the pitches that will play in Port-of-Spain look ready.
“The two wickets that we’re going to play these three games on look really good the last couple days we’ve been there. We’ll wait and see how they play on Friday.”
Simmons, however, does not seem to be too worried about his fielding and bowling departments.
“The bowling and the fielding has been improving daily. We rank ourselves very highly on the fielding,” Simmons said.
“The bowling, we had a couple of games on those wickets where, yes, people might say we should have gotten more wickets but the wicket got better every time we fielded because they had put out the second roller on it and it had dried out from earlier in the day.
“So, the bowlers have been doing well and we have to continue restricting and getting wickets – that’s the only way we can keep totals low and continue to win games,” he added.