Members of the West Indies squad in New Zealand yesterday commenced training in small groups after the players returned negative tests for the COVID-19 at their biosecure facility.
The majority of the West Indies team and management arrived in New Zealand last Friday and have been in quarantine in Christchurch on the south island.
They spent the first three days in isolation and after the negative test returns, commenced training at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre at Lincoln, just outside Christchurch.
The players have to undergo two further tests on Day 6 and Day 12 after which they can train in larger groups.
Head coach, Phil Simmons believes adapting to the conditions will be the challenge.
Simmons, during a press conference via Zoom explained, “I think the challenge is about adapting to the environment. New Zealand is different to Australia and they’re close to each other but New Zealand is different, it’s different to England where we played our last series.”
He continued:”it’s how we adapt to the atmosphere, to the conditions and everything down here.”
Simmons so far was pleased with the way things are going.
“It’s been great since we got here. At the airport we were well looked after and things were done as professionally as they can be,” he declared.
He also expressed delight at the invitation from New Zealand.
West Indies are the only team to travel twice during the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.
Simmons noted that it was an advantage for the side to travel early since “[the] guys can get a chance to see what it’s like.”
“We have a couple practice games before … and I think that’s an important part of the preparation: that we work on things that we’re going to get in this series,” he stated.
He admitted that New Zealand was going to be tough but reckoned preparation over the next few weeks will be important to his side giving a good account of itself.
The West Indies will play two practice matches on November 21-24 and 26-29.
The Maroon side will battle New Zealand in three T20Is on November 27, 29 and 30 before the two Tests on December 3-7 and 11-15.
Test squad: Jason Holder (captain), Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Chemar Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach.
Test Reserves: Nkrumah Bonner, Joshua DaSilva, Preston McSween, Shayne Moseley, Raymon Reifer, Jayden Seales.