West Indies head coach Phil Simmons is confident that the regional side can pull off a series-clenching win in the final T20 International against hosts India tomorrow in Mumbai.
The Windies lost the opening T20 in Hyderabad by six wickets, before rebounding to snatch victory in the second game with a comfortable eight-wicket win.
Speaking to members of the media following Tuesday’s training session, Simmons said the team was full prepared for the challenge ahead of them.
He pointed out that the Windies’ performances in the two T20 matches had been very encouraging.
History is on the West Indies’ side as the last time the two teams met at the venue was the semi-final of the ICC World T20 2016 – which they won.
“A lot has happened since then when we won that semi-final on a famous night right here… but I think we are confident because of the way we have played in the two games here. The way we prepared, the way we have been playing, that gives me and the players a lot of confidence.
“I think the series against Afghanistan helped because we have been here for a long time. We kept the white-ball players here even though there was a Test match on and that worked well as they had great training in these conditions,” Simmons said.
He maintained that the Kieron Pollard-led squad was ready for the match, both mentally and physically.
“We are ready, you can see we are ready. We have prepared well and everyone is up for this challenge. We made a big score in the first match and lost, then we followed up with another very good performance to get the win. So, you can see we are focused and clear what we want to achieve,” Simmons said.
The Windies’ head coach said he did not expect the toss to play a big factor in deciding the outcome of the game.
He said regardless of who won the toss, it was important that the West Indies perform well with both bat and ball.
“I think you have got to be prepared at the beginning for doing either one of them – bat or bowl first on this pitch. If you win the toss you are prepared to do good, whichever one we decide to do. You can lose the toss. I don’t worry about the toss too much,” he said.
A hot topic of discussion throughout the series has been the rivalry between India’s captain Virat Kohli and Windies’ seamer Kesrick Williams.
Kohli blasted Williams for two sixes to finish the first T20 in emphatic fashion, but Williams returned to dismiss the batting juggernaut cheaply in the following game.
Simmons said he had been enjoying the banter, with tomorrow’s contest set to be riveting.
“The banter has been good, it has been interesting because they are 1-1 now because Virat got Kesrick in the first match and Kesrick got him in the second. Let’s see who wins it tomorrow,” Simmons said.
