Campbell awaits good show from Windies women at World Cup
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Head coach Sherwin Campbell says he anticipates an impressive showing from West Indies Women in the ICC Women’s World Cup which begins January 31 in India.
The 15-member team, captained by Merissa Aguilleira, left the Caribbean Tuesday to participate in the 10th edition of the tournament which runs until February 17.
Campbell says the Windies players are in high spirits, particularly after performances which carried them to the final of last year’s T20 World Cup where they lost by 28 runs to Australia.
“We are expecting to do well. We did pretty well in the last T-20 World Cup. We are looking forward to this World Cup,” Campbell told journalists.
“Another challenge could be over a different ball game, but we are looking forward to doing well in this tournament”.
The West Indies will play warm-up games January 28 and 29 before opening their campaign against India at Wankhede Stadium January 31.
“Most of the girls are familiar with the conditions. It’s just a matter of getting to it as quickly as possible and getting acclimatised and hit the ground running from day one,” said Campbell, a former West Indies batsman.
“We have two warm-up games before we play again and a couple days to get acclimatised. So I am looking forward to the competition.”
The Windies women boosted their confidence ahead of the World Cup with outstanding performances against the visiting South Africans in ODI and T20 home series.
The Windies staged a remarkable come by to draw the ODI series and outplayed the visitors in the two T20 matches contested.
“We did pretty well with the ball in this series against South Africa and our feeling was brilliant throughout the series, so that’s the areas that we are really happy,” said Campbell.
“But we obviously want to work on our batting to keep improving our batting and adapt as quickly as possible to conditions and hopefully, be consistent in our batting.”
The West Indies are in group A with Sri Lanka, India and England, while group B comprises Pakistan New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
England are the defending champions after beating Australia in the 2009 final in Sydney.