After a long journey from home, the members of the West Indies team reached New Zealand on Friday afternoon (Thursday night, Caribbean Time). The travel included stops in London and Dubai before the group touched down in Auckland. They then had a short trip to Christchurch, where they will quarantine before commencing training.
There are two squads, one for the three-match T20 International Series and one for the two ICC World Test Championship matches which follow immediately afterwards. Six reserve players have traveled with the Test squad to prepare and ensure replacements are available in case of any injury and, along with other members of the T20I squad, will form an ‘A’ Team to play two four-day matches concurrently with the Test team.
All members of the squads passed their first health test on arrival.
West Indies Assistant Coach, Roddy Estwick, has urged the players to step up to the next level in the upcoming series will run from November 27 to December 15. The T20Is will be in Auckland and Mount Manganui while the Tests will be in Hamilton and Wellington.
“I think we’ve got to win series now. We win the odd Test match – you can look at all the teams we’ve played in the last two years – we’ve won one Test match, but we haven’t won the series,” Estwick said.
“I think it’s big for us now that we start winning series. If we want to move up, we’ve got to win series. It’s important that we put two or three performances together, not one good performance and we tend to fade away. We’ve got to win series and there’s no doubt about that, and we’ve got to start here in New Zealand by trying to win this series by playing good, positive, hard disciplined cricket.”
Estwick added: “New Zealand is a very, very difficult side playing at home. We’ve got to be up and we’ve got to execute properly. We’ve got to sit down, and we’ve got to plan. We know what it was like last time and we’ve got to make sure we’re ready because nobody goes to New Zealand and wins easily. You’ve got to be prepared to scrap. Sometimes they can be very patient and you’ve got to match that patience as well. We’ve got to leave no stone unturned to make sure we can combat New Zealand.”
