BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC- A confident West Indies Women cricket team left the Caribbean Friday to play a five match T20 series against England starting next weekend.
The West Indies is using the series as part of final preparations for the ICC T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka from September 26th.
The two teams will start with the first two games at the Durham ICG and Old Trafford, on September 8 and 10 respectively.
The other matches will be played at the County Ground, Northampton (September 13), County Ground, Hove (September 15) and at the Arundel Cricket Club in Sussex (September 16). “It’s good to be back in West Indies colours and it feels great to be leading the team on this tour in England and onto the Twenty20 World Cup in Sri Lanka” said Captain Merissa Aguilleira ahead of the team’s departure.
“We believe we can win the series in England and we will plan well and look to execute. We know conditions in England will be quite different from those we experience at home, but we are capable of adapting quickly” said the 26-year-old wicket-keeper.
The West Indies will be without world-leading allrounder Stafanie Taylor for the first half of the series.
The 21-year-old, who won the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year award last year, is expected to join the team after the second match.
West Indies preparation in England to face their female counterparts includes training sessions and two warm-up matches.
“That should be ideal preparation for the bigger matches. We played against India and Sri Lanka at home earlier this year and did really well”, Aguilleira said.
“So we hope to continue the good year with a win against England, which would be the right tonic as we head to Sri Lanka.”
The ICC women’s T20 world cup runs from September 26th to October 7th.
“The World T20 in Sri Lanka is the ‘big’ prize. It is what every team wants and we want it. We know that to win it we will have to be at our best and go out there and take it” said the West Indies women captain.
“So we are mentally and physically up to the challenge. We have some of the best players in the world in our team and we are also have some younger players waiting for their opportunity to break onto the world stage,” Aguilleira said.
FULL SQUAD Merissa Aguilleira (Captain/wicket-keeper),Stafanie Taylor (Vice Captain), Shemaine Campbelle, Britney Cooper, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Stacy-Ann King, Kycia Knight (Wicket-keeper), Anisa Mohammed, Subrina Munroe, Juliana Nero, Shaquana Quintyne, Shakera Selman, Tremayne Smartt
