Simmons: ‘We have a hungry and eager team’

Despite the lack of international experience in the West Indies squad, Head Coach Phil Simmons believes the current group of players are still extremely hungry and eager to succeed in Bangladesh.

Several of the first-choice senior players are absent from this tour, comprising three One-Day Internationals and two Tests, for reasons ranging from COVID-19 concerns to injuries.

The ODI squad is the most inexperienced with nine players yet to debut in the format.

The last tour provides little inspiration since West Indies, with a much stronger squad back then, lost both series. Simmons, speaking on Tuesday via a Virtual press conference, said the players are up for the challenge.

“Yes, we may not have our full team, but at the same time we have a team here that is hungry, who wants to do well and is eager to play in these conditions and to fight and scrap in these conditions. When we left the Caribbean we left with a view of winning the ODI series,” Simmons stated.

After three away tours, the most by any team during the pandemic, West Indies are expected to host Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan, all before the Caribbean Premier League this year.

The coach said certainly good performances in this series will bode well for the busy schedule on the horizon.

“When we went to England, we carried 25 players and we have seen a couple of young players, including the two that made their debut in New Zealand come through from that,” Simmons expressed.

“There are a couple of young players on this tour that we did not know before so this opens up the pool and like I said before, some of the places are in the players’ hands; if they do well here they can put themselves in line to play most of these series coming up.”

The one-day leg, which consists of three matches, starts January 20 and Simmons said it will be based on how players perform in the net sessions they can gauge the best combination, given the lack of experience.

The second and third ODI will be contested on January 22 and 25.

West Indies ODI Squad: Jason Mohammed (Captain), Sunil Ambris (Vice-captain), Nkrumah Bonner, Joshua Da Silva, Keon Harding, Jahmar Hamilton, Chemar Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Andre McCarthy, Kjorn Ottley, Rovman Powell, Raymon Reifer, Hayden Walsh Jr.