Phil Simmons believes several of his T20 players, who will be arriving late to New Zealand, will be ready to be at their best for the upcoming three-match T20 series against New Zealand next month, despite being in isolation until the eve of the opening match.
Several members of the T20 squad including Fabian Allen, Kieron Pollard, Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul, Oshane Thomas, Nicholas Pooran, and Jaspon Holder, are expected to arrive in New Zealand near mid-November to join the touring party that arrived in New Zealand late last week. The players were engaged in the ongoing IPL tournament that concludes on November 10.
Pooran’s time in the IPL will be winding down soon after his KXIP team were eliminated from playoff contention after losing to CSK earlier today.
Notwithstanding, for those playing in the international T20 series, it means they will be quarantined for two weeks and will only be cleared to play just prior to the start of the series on November 27.
However, Simmons, the West Indies head coach, is optimistic that the period of inactivity will have that much of an impact of the late-arriving players.
“The plus about that is that they are coming from playing in a high-quality tournament so they will be sharp. The guys that are with us, we have to get them up to that level so when we meet on as a full squad everyone is on the same page,” he said. (Sportsmax)
