Injury concerns for WI Women ahead of tri-nation series
Published:Saturday | January 21, 2023 | 1:01 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
West Indies Women’s head coach Courtney Walsh has pointed to some injury concerns ahead of the T20 tri-nation cricket series which bowls off today. Hosts South Africa and India are the other teams in the series.
The Hayley Matthews-led Windies team will face South Africa today at 8 a.m. Jamaica time.
“One bit of worry for me is that we have some injuries so we don’t have the full 16 to select from, but putting that aside everybody is getting in the right direction in terms of making sure we prepare ourselves adequately so I’m happy for that,” said Walsh.
The injury concerns could hamper the team’s overall performance in South Africa, but coach Walsh believes the setback could give opportunities to other players to showcase their talents.
“The three players out with injuries now are Stafanie Taylor, Chinelle Henry and Aaliyah Alleyne. Plans have been made for their replacements. It will give players a chance to, sort of, go and make a name for themselves. We are, at the same time, hoping for a speedy recovery for those three and have them ready for selection,” Walsh added.
Despite the recent poor run of form from the Caribbean team which has seen them lose their last 10 T20 matches which included 5-0 series sweeps to both New Zealand and England, coach Walsh was happy with the mood of the team heading into this morning’s fixture.
“The morale and mood of the camp is very good, we can’t wait to start playing and start to get in some performances that would give us some confidence,” he said.
With the batting an area of grave concern for the West Indies women, Walsh added that as a coaching group the issues were spoken about, at length.
“We have been doing a lot of work, the batting coach has been busy putting things together and have them doing drills to try and spend time at the crease. In our discussions in team meetings, we have been setting targets and trying to get everyone to understand what we need to do to compete at the highest level,” Walsh said.
The experienced coach added that one of the team’s goals was to improve the targets that they had set for their opponents in order to remain competitive.
“We want to get scores that we can compete with. If you look at every team, most of them are getting scores in the region of 140, 150 and 160, and those are the totals that we want to get, to compete with these teams at the top,” he said.