After losing the three-match ODI series against hosts Bangladesh, touring West Indies say they are looking forward to playing some good cricket in the Test series starting from February 3.
Before that, the Caribbeans will take part in a three-day practice game against BCB XI starting from Friday at MA Aziz Stadium in Chattogram.
In the ODI series, West Indies were below-par in every department of the game. But this time around, they are looking forward to posing some challenges for the hosts.
“I think the main thing I’ll look for is a thought and understanding of how they’ll bat in these upcoming games. I’m sure everyone will try to put their plans into place. How they’ll play spin and fast bowlers – how they’ll get runs. It’s up to them in this three-day game to try to put things together and make sure exactly how they’re going to score when the time comes,” Phil Simmons, the coach of West Indies, told a virtual press briefing on Thursday.
“It’s about knowing and learning how to bowl on these wickets. Everywhere you go there are different lines and lengths. If it’s flat wicket, you’ve to know what you want to do. They’ve to get what they want out of the game. They also have to understand conditions and know how to adjust,” he added.
Nurul Hasan Sohan, who is also part of Bangladesh’s preliminary Test squad, will lead BCB XI in this match. The national selector skipped selecting a left-arm spinner in BCB XI. Simmons called this move a home advantage for the hosts.
“They don’t want to give us a chance to see how we fare against them (left-arm spinners). We know they’ll have at least two in their Test squad, but that’s how things work; that’s called home advantage and we’ve to work with that,” Simmons said.
The tourists could expect a better outing in the Test series because they have some experienced guys in this format, unlike the ODIs.
“We may have one or two debutants in this Test series whereas we had ten in the ODI series. It’s a huge difference. There’re guys in the Test side who’ve been here before. Kraigg (Brathwaite) was the captain in the last tour, Shannon (Gabriel) and (Kemar) Roach were down here, so it’s good to have that kind of experience going into the Test series,” he said.
Along with Nurul, there will be four more players of Bangladesh Test side who are parts of the three-day game and they are — Saif Hassan, Shadman Islam, Khaled Ahmed and Yasir Ali.
