West Indies vice-captain, Shai Hope has revealed the team is settling in nicely for their tour of Netherlands.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Hope said, “It’s been going pretty good so far, I would say the biggest thing was trying to get acclimatized to the weather, it is a bit chilly here now but the first two sessions have been very good.”
Hope noted that this was a key aspect since they have never played in Netherlands and even had little matches against the side.
“As we all know we haven’t played many cricket games against them so it’s going to be fairly new to most of us… we kind of have to play it by ear in a sense because we haven’t physically played against them too often so we are just going to use the technology we have now, looking at footages, seeing what’s the best plans to formulate against them so it’s about trying to tick those boxes as early as we can and using the conditions to our advantage so that we can get on top of them early,” he explained.
Hope went on to speak about their batting strategies and indicated that he does not believe in playing with one mentality but rather open to the possibilities once given the situation.
He detailed, “I am a strong believer in playing the situation so I wouldn’t say that we have to play in one particular way in any innings so it’s about assessing conditions quickly seeing what the opposition is throwing at you first of all and finding the best way to score runs because we all know who scores the most runs win the game so it’s about finding the best plans and what would work on that particular day because every day something could be different.”
Hope has 89 50-over internationals under his belt with 10 centuries and twice as much fifties. He currently averages over 50 in the format, the highest by any batsman in West Indies and one of five active players with an average in excess of 50.
West Indies are ranked ninth while Netherlands are sitting in 14th. Of Netherlands’ 92 One Day Internationals, they have won 34 with success over Bangladesh, Ireland and Zimbabwe.
These two sides have played twice with West Indies coming out successful on both occasions. This will be their first clash in 11 years.
The three ODI’s will be played on May 31, June 2 and June 4.
Netherlands Squad: Pieter Seelaar (c), Scott Edwards (wk), Shariz Ahmad, Logan van Beek, Philippe Boissevain, Aryan Dutt, Clayton Floyd, Fred Klaassen, Vivian Kingma, Ryan Klein, Bas de Leede, Musa Nadeem Ahmad, Teja Nidamanuru, Max O’Dowd, Vikram Singh, Tonny Staal
West Indies Squad: Nicholas Pooran (c), Shai Hope (vc), Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Keacy Carty, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Shermon Lewis, Kyle Mayers, Anderson Phillip, Rovman Powell, Jayden Seales, Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh Jr.
