West Indies huddle up during nets. (Source: Reuters)
Former West Indies cricketer Joel Garner warned England to not underrestimate West Indies, who are ranked eighth in the world saying that cricket is played in the middle at the end of the day. West Indies will be playing their second day-night Test while England their first.
“It’s going to be some interesting times,” Garner told espncricinfo. “I think people are writing the West Indies off too early and it could be at their own peril. Cricket is played in the middle at the end of the day. Not many people are giving us a lot of hope. What is good is that we came in whilst England were playing South Africa. We got on with the job very quietly. I think the fellas have got talent. It’s who makes the greatest adjustment in the day-night game. I think that games between England and the West Indies are competitive. I wouldn’t completely write them off.”
Many senior players are not featuring in the squad. “It is what it is,” Garner said of the selection. “I think that the players have made a decision they want to play a shorter version of the game. There is an amnesty between the board and the players, relating to the players being available. We will welcome them back because they are our better players but at the present moment we are here to play cricket. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got and try to get the best results out of it. I think that’s as fair as it can be.”
“The senior players who are away, they will have to make their mind up about whether they want to come back and play the longer version of the game. What we have now is that Roach is back after a year or so away from cricket. We also have [Shannon] Gabriel, who was injured. He’s been working to get his rhythm back and there’s the captain, [Jason] Holder.”
“I would say, you can call it criticism if you like, that attitudes have changed somewhat towards training and preparation. I go back to the way of ‘if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail’. Most of what has been happening has been over preparation. People might not want to train the way that they should train or might not prepare the way that they should prepare,” he added.
