PERTH, Australia, CMC – West Indies Women captain Stafanie Taylor has put ICC Women’s T20 World Cup debutants Thailand on notice that her side will not be showing any mercy in their first match today.
The Caribbean women will be giving all they’ve got, Taylor said ahead of their opening Group B match at the WACA here.
After securing their first T20 World Cup Title in 2016 with an upset win over Australia in the final in Kolkata, West Indies were knocked out of the 2018 semi-finals hosted in the Caribbean. The regional side has struggled recently, suffering embarrassing whitewashes in their last two series to Australia and India, and winning only five of their last 17 T20 Internationals.
In their first match of the 2020 edition of the T20 World Cup, West Indies will come up against a team that, although new to the competition, has played more T20Is in the last two years than any other nation.
And Taylor, who was at the helm when the West Indies took the 2016 title, said the established West Indies will treat Thailand the same as any other opponent.
“We’ll be looking at it exactly like playing Australia or India. We’re taking it very seriously, for sure,” she said.
“We can’t think in the back of our minds that they know nothing about cricket because we haven’t played or seen much of them. We can’t assume we’re just going to hit them all around the park. If we adopted that plan, it would definitely backfire.”
West Indies will be depending on some senior team members in their encounter. The squad is boosted by the return of allrounder Deandra Dottin following a long injury battle with a shoulder issue that kept her off the field for a year.
Pacer Shakera Selman, one of West Indies’ most experienced bowlers, having featured in 76 T20Is and taken 41 wickets at 26.53, has been cleared to play after an injury scare in an official warm-up match against India in Brisbane.
The Thailand squad, led by Sornnarin Tippoch, is largely the same as the one that qualified for their maiden T20 World Cup and includes off-spinner Nattaya Boochatham, who took more wickets than any other bowler in the format in 2019.
Taylor said West Indies won’t be taking anything for granted.
“The ball is round and anything could happen. We just need to keep a positive mindset and make sure we do everything right,” the Jamaican said.
The skipper summed up the mood heading into the global event: “The experience I had back home in the Caribbean in 2018 was like no other, but the hype around this tournament has been really great.”
West Indies open their bid for a second global title at 3 p.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern Caribbean Time/2 a.m. Jamaica Time).
They will play Pakistan Women on February 26 at Manuka Oval, Canberra; and England Women on March 1 and South Africa Women on March 3 at Sydney Showground.
The tournament will culminate on March 8 with the final in Melbourne.
Australia Women opened the seventh season of T20 World Cup yesterday with a contest against India Women at Sydney Showground. More than 15,000 tickets were sold for the opener.
