DHAKA, Bangladesh, CMC – Denesh Ramdin joined coach Ottis Gibson and captain Darren Sammy in describing West Indies’ tour of Bangladesh this month as challenging.
The wicketkeeper/batsman joined the West Indies team fresh from the Champions League Twenty20 in India, where he helped Trinidad & Tobago reach the brink of qualification for the semi-finals.
He said West Indies had a short time to prepare for the international matches against their hosts and overcoming the conditions will be the biggest challenge.
“Everyone knows this is not going to be an easy series for us,” said Ramdin. “They [Bangladeshis] play well at home so we have to make sure our preparations are spot-on and make maximum use of whatever warm-up opportunities we have.” He added: “Conditions here have changed quite a bit since I was here as captain in the Under-19 World Cup, but we can still expect the pitches to favour the spinners. “It would be good to get some pitches which would offer bounce and carry because we have some good fast bowlers in our team, but we will play hard, tough cricket on whatever surfaces are prepared for us.”
West Indies open the tour today with a One-day match against a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI at the Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Futallah.
As the only wicketkeeper/batsman in the limited-overs squad on tour, Ramdin is expected to jump right back into the thick of things, take the gloves in the warm-up match. “I was out of the team mainly because I wasn’t getting enough runs, so I went back and worked hard on my batting and also tried to maintain my keeping standards,” he said.
“I got some runs in the domestic four-day tournament and managed to get a recall. There were some areas which needed attention, so I assessed my game and made some changes. Hopefully, I will see the benefit of those changes.”
Ramdin, who has played 42 Tests, 81 One-day and 22 Twenty20 Internationals for West Indies, also reckoned that the time spent in India will serve him well, since he was already accustomed to the typical sub-continental conditions the Caribbean side may encounter.
“I’m really looking forward to the One-day Internationals and the Tests, and I am focused on taking all the chances I get,” he said. “I just came over from representing T&T in the CLT20 in India so I would say I am somewhat used to the conditions and types of surfaces we will be playing on.”
West Indies play a Twenty20 and three One-day Internationals, along with two Tests against Bangladesh on the trip.
They will be hoping to avenge an embarrassing home series defeat to the Bengal Tigers when the two sides met in the Caribbean two years ago, at the same time several leading players, including Ramdin, took industrial action over the terms and conditions of their contracts.
