KOLKATA, India, CMC – West Indies arrived here early yesterday from Dubai to begin their final preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup set to bowl off here today.
The 2012 champions spent the last two weeks in a preparation camp in United Arab Emirates where they also played four unofficial T20 warm-up games – two against Zimbabwe in Sharjah and two versus English County Warwickshire in Dubai.
They won all four fixtures.
West Indies were not expected to train yesterday, especially coming off Sunday’s final game against Warwickshire.
The Caribbean side play their two official warm-up matches at Eden Gardens here, taking on hosts and powerhouses India on Thursday and Australia on Sunday.
Media reports here said star all-rounder Dwayne Bravo was not with the team at the hotel yesterday, having flown to New Delhi following his arrival from Dubai.
However, a team official said the veteran T20 specialist would return in time for the Windies fixtures.
“He has some personal commitments in New Delhi. He will return in time,” media reports quoted an unnamed team official as saying.
West Indies are also awaiting a replacement for opener Lendl Simmons, who was forced to opt out of the squad last week after failing to recover from a back injury.
The Trinidadian played no part in the camp in UAE.
In recent weeks, West Indies have been hit by a number of high profile withdrawals from the squad. Kieron Pollard pulled out with injury, off-spinner Sunil Narine chose to complete the rehabilitation of his bowling action while left-handed batsman Darren Bravo opted to represent Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in the ongoing Regional four-day championship.
West Indies have been installed in Group A of the T20 World Cup and will play alongside the likes of South Africa, Sri Lanka and England.
The winner of Group B in the qualifying tournament beginning today, will join West Indies in Group 1.
