West Indies hold the edge over New Zealand in the T20Is but will be facing an uphill battle in the Test series.
This is the opinion of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cricket West Indies, Johnny Grave during an interview on Mason and Guest on Tuesday.
Grave saw the T20I series as, “very much now the real 12-month road map between now and that T20 World Cup that is taking place next year in India.”
With West Indies being the defending champions, Grave believes that title will be well represented.
“I think the T20s we could expect to compete very well and would be looking to win the series,” Grave stated.
“I think we will go there as defending world champions with a number of players who have been playing cricket in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and IPL (Indian Premier League) so they should be in good form with all the players participated in the CPL (Caribbean Premier League),” the CEO added.
Meanwhile, for the two-Test series, Grave did not express that much confidence.
“I think in terms of the Test, obviously now the Test series is really important with every Test match matters towards the Test championships…We know it’s going to be very tough, I was there in 2017 when it was a one-sided affair in New Zealand where they got the better of us in all the games,” he stated.
“We know New Zealand in their home conditions are an extremely strong side. They very rarely lose series, they very rarely lose matches and they will be raring to go having not played Test match cricket since their summer was curtailed back in March.”
Nevertheless, Grave predicted “a great series,” banking on the extensive preparation ahead of the Tests.
“I think it will be a great series,” he declared. “We have obviously got a really good preparation period of about three weeks before the first warm-up game, a three-day game against New Zealand `A’ that has now been rearranged and is going to be in Queenstown. We’ve got a four-day game following that in Queenstown before the first Test in Hamilton,” he noted.
In terms of the World Test Championships, the CEO pointed out that there is some satisfaction to return from an away series with a drawn result.
Grave indicated since West Indies restarted Test cricket against England, they should be looking to enter the series high on confidence and look to better those results.
“We know it’s going to be difficult but the team should go there with confidence, looking to put in a strong performance against a very strong New Zealand side,” Grave expressed adding, “Like everything the first session of the first Test that sets the tone. We know we are going to be up against it but, hopefully, the players learn a lot in the England tour and obviously want to go better than they did there which was win the first Test match but lose the series.”
West Indies left local shores on Tuesday and will face a 14-day quarantine once arriving in New Zealand. They are set to play two Tests and three T20Is from November 27.
