PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Omar Khan said winning a warm-up Twenty20 tournament in Barbados this week would be the right tonic for reigning Caribbean champions Trinidad & Tobago ahead of the Caribbean T20.
T&T face arch-rivals Barbados, as well as composite side Combined Campuses & Colleges and an invitational All Stars XI in a four-team T20 tournament, starting today at the Three Ws Oval in Barbados.
T&T team operations manager Khan said the tournament will be a welcomed prelude for his side after their preparation was hampered by rain, which also forced the cancellation of a pre-season tournament.
“We want to get in the habit of winning,” Khan told the Newsday newspaper. “It’s always a priority for us to win. It’s a psychological way of preparing because we want to get our intensity levels up and execute game plans.
“We had very little match scenarios, so it is an opportunity for the guys to play competitive matches against some high-class teams. We want to assess where we are for the CT20.”
The CT20 opens next Monday and will be staged in Antigua and Barbados with T&T drawn in Group-A, where their opponents will be Canada, Guyana, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands.
Khan was anxious for the T&T batsmen to get a chance to spend some quality time in the middle, since this has been an area of concern for them in recent times.
He expected the West Indies pair of Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo to make a difference in the line-up.
“With Barath and Bravo, I expect the batting to show more consistency and us to target totals you usually get in Twenty20,” he said.
“I expect the two of them to lead from the front. Lendl Simmons is also mature enough to know his role at the top of the innings.”
Khan said the bowling remained T&T’s strength and even described the combination as “World class”.
“Bowling has always been one of our strengths,” he said. “I am of the belief we have one of the best bowling attacks in the World with Ravi (Rampaul), Sunil (Narine), Samuel Badree, Sherwin Ganga and Kevon Cooper. Bowling is not a problem at all.”
Such is the wealth of riches in the bowling department, Khan said it had to be a difficult decision for the selectors to omit promising fast bowler Shannon Gabriel from the squad.
“It’s unfortunate that Shannon couldn’t make the CT20 squad with all the Test players being available,” he said.
“He’s been part of the West Indies High Performance Centre and played for the West Indies A-Team. It’s just a matter of him taking the opportunity when it arises.”
T&T face Windward Islands in the opening match of the CT20 on January 9 at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua.
