West Indies’ One Day captain Jason Holder along with Kemar Roach, Fabian Allen and Shai Hope have arrived in Guyana ahead of the three-match series against India.
The quartet, who will be joined by the West Indies side currently playing India in a three-match T20 series in Florida, were seen yesterday at the National Stadium, Providence, participating in a lengthy net session, with Director of Sport Jimmy Adams and Mervin Dillon conducting the session.
West Indies will close the T20 series in Guyana on Tuesday and begin the One Day series on Thursday, marking the first time in three decades the two sides go head-to-head in a 50-over contest on Guyanese soil. The last time was at the famous Georgetown Cricket Club Ground, Bourda, where the hosts won by 101 runs.
Holder, the highest ranked all-rounder from the West Indies at seventh and highest rated bowler at 39th, will want to brush off their unfortunate run in the recently concluded International Cricket Council’s World Cup and begin the rebuilding of a side that is ranked ninth in the world.
On the positives, Shai Hope sits comfortably at the top of the batsmen from the region, ranking 14th in the world with an average of 48.5 despite a lean World Cup run.
Kemar Roach showed glimpses of hope in the limited matches he played in the World Cup and has demonstrated why he remains a hot commodity to the seam attack.
In the last decade, India have won nine of the 14 completed matches between the two sides.
Adams has already expressed his feelings that this series would kick-start the campaign to the 2023 World Cup and with the side boasting seven players 25 years and under, the composition looks to favour such sentiments.
“There is a lot of work to be done and over the course of how many world cups, teams change, individuals change, but I do think people have quite a few [of] what I would call genuine match winners and the challenge for us is to put it together to be competitive. The raw materials are there to build and it is a process I look forward to developing over the next 18 months,” Adams had told Stabroek Sport.
The Director of Cricket anticipates an interesting series between the two sides and posited that based on the previous series against England in the Caribbean, anything can happen.
“India will start as favourites obviously, because of their standing in world cricket but funny things happen when you are playing at home and I am looking forward to the series with interest,” he said.
