As the West Indies women prepare to open their campaign against Sri Lanka at Kensington Oval this morning, coach Sherwin Campbell says he wants to continue building a team for the future.
The Windies Women have been in camp for ten days in the build-up to the eight-match series, which will feature three One-Day and five Twenty20 Internationals. The first ball is 9 a.m.
“The team has been working extremely hard on their batting skills as we believe that our bowling and fielding levels have been consistently high,” said Campbell.
The former West Indies men’s opener and vice-captain expressed great satisfaction with the work done during the camp, where the emphasis was batting against spin with a view of dominating Sri Lanka’s slow bowlers.
The home team showed earlier this year that they could handle the slow bowling when they beat India in both formats on home soil.
West Indies Women have several players ranked in the top 20 in batting in ODIs. Stafanie Taylor, the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year 2011, currently tops the batting table with a 63-rating points lead over India’s Mithali Raj. Should Taylor perform well in the series, she could further secure her spot as not only the No. 1 batsman, but also the No. 1 all-rounder in the world.
“We enjoyed a really good series against India and with Sri Lanka being ranked lower than them, we need to do well in this series in order to raise our ICC rankings,” said Campbell.
“All of the players have been working toward that objective and, of course, Stefanie will want to maintain her world ranking as an all-rounder and a batter, and Deandra Dottin has also been moving up the rankings.”
The 20-year-old Taylor also tops the ICC Women’s ODI Player Rankings for all-rounders with an 85-point lead over Australia’s Lisa Sthalekar.
Her teammates, the powerful Deandra Dottin (seventh), inspirational captain Merissa Aguilleira (17th) and veteran opener Juliana Nero (20th), all have a good chance to bat their way up the batting rankings in this series.
In the bowling rankings, Taylor is also the highest-ranked West Indian at No. 6 and her teammate Anisa Mohammed is at No. 7. Left-arm spinner Shanel Daley is at No. 13 on a career-high 502 points.
“We also have one new girl, 17-year-old Natasha McLean, and she is one of the players for the future. She is a solid top-order batter and also a capable wicketkeeper. She has come into the team and looked quite comfortable and ready to play her part,” Campbell said.
He added that they knew what to expect from Sri Lanka. They lost to them in Sri Lanka, but recently beat them in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2013 qualifiers.
“Their team is built around spin bowling, so we know what we will come up against. They are not strong (physically) as our players, but they are talented and we know we can beat them.”
The squad – Merissa Aguilleira (captain/wicketkeeper), Stafanie Taylor (vice- captain), Shemaine Campbelle, Shanel Daley, Deandra Dottin, Pearl Etienne, Stacy-Ann King, Natasha McLean (wicketkeeper), Anisa Mohammed, Subrina Munroe, Juliana Nero, Amanda Samaroo, Shakera Selman, Tremayne Smartt. (SAT/PR)
