Prolonged isolation period won't affect our players, says Phil Simmons
Nov 01, 2020
Auckland [New Zealand], November 1 : West Indies coach Phil Simmons has said that the players who will arrive from the Indian Premier League (IPL) to New Zealand will be ready for the upcoming T20I series against the Kiwis.
The players who will arrive in Auckland from the IPL would not have completed their isolation period until the eve of the opening match in Auckland, but the head coach Simmons has played down the whole issue.
"It's a little bit difficult this time because when the main T20 guys get here they are in isolation until just before the first game. But the plus about that is that they are coming from playing in a high-quality tournament so they will be sharp," ESPNCricinfo quoted Simmons as saying.
"The guys that are with us, we have to get them up to that level so when we meet on November 27 as a full squad everyone is on the same page," he added.
West Indies' touring party had arrived in New Zealand on Friday, October 30 after a 54-hour journey from the Caribbean. However, six members of the T20I squad, including captain Kieron Pollard, will leave the UAE following the conclusion of the IPL on November 10.
"We are going to try and continue how we planned the preparation. In this series especially there are a few guys who weren't in that team in Sri Lanka and they will be trying to push themselves into the final 15 next year because we are missing the two main allrounders," said Simmons.
"At this point, you have quite a few players trying to understand how exactly they fit into the line-up and that's what the build-up is now - if you are on the bench you know exactly what you have to do and if you are in the XI you know what you have to do," he added.
West Indies last played T20Is in March this year against Sri Lanka. For the series against the Kiwis, West Indies will be without the services of Dwayne Bravo and Andre Russell.
New Zealand and West Indies will also play a two-match Test series against each other. Talking about the series, Simmons said: "We are trying to continue to build," he said. "We have to take that Southampton performance and see what the points are that we need to work on to better that. It's very difficult to beat teams [at their] home now and we need to play the best cricket we can in any Test to beat teams high up the table, of which New Zealand is one of them."
