World T20: Simmons banking on history of ‘tournament success’

West Indies have not had consistent success in bilateral T20 International series, but come World T20 events, they have proven to be a consistent force, winning two of the last three World T20 tournaments.

Head Coach Phil Simmons speaking at a virtual press conference on Monday, said he is banking on the rich history they have in tournaments to help them over the line.

West Indies, the current defending World T20 champions, are ranked ninth, below Afghanistan. In their recent home schedule, they defeated Sri Lanka and Australia, but lost to South Africa and Pakistan.

Since the World T20 in 2016, West Indies have played in 23 bilateral T20I series and has only won nine, drew one, and lost 13.

A major reason for the inconsistency is the fact that a lot of their first-choice T20 players are most times unavailable for bilateral series, albeit all took part at some point during the aforementioned series as World T20 prep.

Most of their seasoned global-trotters are named in the World T20 squad, and Simmons hopes they find the tournament synergy.

“That is something we looked at and it is something I said in the 15 or what turned out to be 11 games, that we had together, is one of the things that we need to get, a bonding of the team [and] a bonding of the squad,” the coach stated in a response to a question from News Room Sport.

“One we have bonding and understanding of roles, we do well in tournaments, so it is a point we have been looking at all the time.”

The majority of the West Indies players have spent the last six days in room quarantine as per requirement for the World T20, and Simmons indicated that on Tuesday they would commence training.

Squad: Kieron Pollard (capt), Nicholas Pooran (vice-captain & wk), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher (wk), Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr

Reserves: Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Sheldon Cottrell, Darren Bravo

West Indies have been drawn in Group 1 and will play five group games against England, South Africa, and Australia along with the winner of Round 1 Group A (Sri Lanka, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Namibia) and the runner-up from Round 1 Group B (Bangladesh, Scotland, Papua New Guinea, and Oman).

West Indies’ first group game will be against England in Dubai on October 23.