Photo Credit: Cricket West Indies
All members of the West Indies squad started training in small groups on Tuesday after they returned negative tests for the COVID-19 at their biosecure facility. The majority of the West Indies team and management arrived in New Zealand last Friday and have been in quarantine in Christchurch on the south island.
They had to spend the first three days in isolation and then return a negative test before they could begin training at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre at Lincoln, just outside Christchurch. The West Indies squad members have to undergo two further tests on Day 6 and Day 12 after which they can train in larger groups.
Joshua DaSilva, the wicket-keeper/batsman, is on his first men’s senior tour of New Zealand. He is a reserve for the Test squad. This is his second time to the country, having toured with a Trinidad & Tobago schoolboy team before.
“I’m looking forward to leaning a lot like what I did on the tour of England earlier this year. It’s really good to be playing red-ball cricket again and being back with the West Indies team,” he said.
“I played in Auckland and Queenstown … the pitches were always nice and good for batting so I’m really looking ahead to getting out there and performing.”
The 22-year-old was speaking to CWI Media after training at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval. It was jacket weather as temperatures dipped below 15 Degrees Celsius.
The upcoming T20I Series will start with the defending World Cup champions facing the Black Caps at Eden Park in Auckland for a match under lights. The series then moves to Mount Maunganui for two matches at the picturesque Bay Oval – the first a day match and the second under lights. West Indies will then travel to Hamilton for the first Test at Seddon Park and then south to Wellington for the second match at the historic Basin Reserve.
The T20Is will be the start of an 11-month schedule of matches building up to the ICC T20 World Cup, rescheduled for October 2021 in India. The opening contest at Eden Park will have added significance as this is the venue where the two teams met in their first T20I contest back in 2006. That match ended in a tie which forced a dramatic bowl-off, won by the home side. Three years later the teams met again at the same venue and played to another tie which was decided by the first ever T20I super over, won by the West Indies.
Match Schedule:
November 27: 1st T20I at Eden Park, Auckland
November 29: 2nd T20I at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui
November 30: 3rd T20I at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui
December 3-7: 1st Test at Seddon Park, Hamilton
December 11-15: 2nd Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington
Name of Author: Cricket West Indies
Cricket West Indies (CWI) governs cricket across the West Indies, a confederation of Caribbean countries. Originally established as the West Indies Cricket Board of Control in the 1920s, it became the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) in 1996 and was rebranded as Cricket West Indies in May 2017 as part of a restructuring effort.
