West Indies Head Coach Daren Sammy said he is delighted with the hard work being put in by his players during the ongoing pre-series camp in Barbados.
With over a week before the first ball against Australia in the opening Test, Sammy put the players through an all-day training session in the middle to test their readiness to face the world Number 1 ranked team.
“Today was a full day of ‘Test’ cricket as we looked at game-sense training. It was good to see Shamar run in and bowl those really good areas and so did all the other bowlers. The ability to consistently hit that six-metre mark was good to see and I enjoyed seeing the bowlers firing,” Sammy said.
He was hugely impressed by Shamar Joseph, the 24-year-old fast bowler who is making a return to the international stage.
“Shamar, since he announced himself on the Test arena against Australia in these two Test matches Down Under, I would love to see him repeat those kinds of performances in the coming weeks here on home soil. We went back to see the preparations he had then, and the kind of work he had in his legs, and we tried to recreate that kind of situation,” Sammy said.
The series will be played for the Frank Worrell trophy and will signal the start of the 2025-2027 cycle of the ICC Men’s World Test Championship for both teams. Australia starts the series as the No.1-ranked team having not lost a series in the 2023-25 WTC cycle.
They have 123 points while West Indies are in eighth place on 73 points. A win in the series could see them move to seventh above Pakistan who are on 78 points.
Meanwhile the Australians are due to arrive in Barbados on Tuesday and will have a training camp at the picturesque Windward Cricket Club on the eastern side of the island.
They have been forced to make a change to the squad with allrounder Sean Abbott replacing Brendaan Doggett, who had an injury complaint during the ICC Men’s Test Championship finals in England last week.
They are also expected to be without batting legend Steve Smith, who suffered a dislocated finger when he spilled a vital catch in the final at Lord’s. Smith’s absence means Josh Inglis, the back-up wicket-keeper is expected to take his place in the middle order.
It is also expected that 19-year-old sensation Sam Kostas will open the batting and Marnus Labuschagne will return to Number 3 as a replacement for Cameron Green, the giant allrounder, who struggled at Lord’s.
“I will be in a splint for eight weeks now and I may be able to play with it in a couple of weeks. It will depend on my functionality and what I am able to do, so it was probably the best result I could have hoped for,” Smith said.
“I was standing pretty close with the helmet on and as we saw throughout the game a lot of nicks went short of first and second slip. The plan was to stand pretty close and I lost sight of with the angle that Mitchell Starc was bowling and it kind of went inside Bavuma’s hip and I didn’t see it until really late. It was tricky … it didn’t go in my hand very well. Fortunately, there is no break there and it just split the skin and dislocated it which made me feel pretty ill at that stage.” (Sportsmax)
SQUADS
West Indies: Roston Chase (captain), Jomel Warrican (vice captain), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales; Daren Sammy (head coach)
Australia: Pat Cummins (captain), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Sam Konstas, Scott Boland, Matt Kuhnemann, Sean Abbott; Andrew McDonald (head coach)
MATCH SCHEDULE
1st Test: June 25-29 at Kensington Oval, Barbados
2nd Test: July 3-7 at National Stadium, Grenada
3rd Test: July 12-16 at Sabina Park, Jamaica (day/night)
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