Upbeat West Indies eye strong start against Ireland

West Indies white-ball captain Shai Hope says the team is upbeat and looking forward to the opening One-Day International against Ireland here on Wednesday.

Speaking in a pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Hope said expectations were still high even without the services of Sherfane Rutherford and Romario Shepherd for the three-match ODI series.

John Campbell has been named as a replacement for Rutherford, while Jediah Blades will join the team for the succeeding England tour as a replacement for Shepherd.

It will be no cakewalk for the visitors, who at ninth in the world are three spots higher than the home side, as the last time the two sides met in January 2022 in the Caribbean, Ireland emerged victorious 2-1 in that three-match series.

Hope said the weather was much warmer than the kind experienced on their last tour to Ireland six years ago, and it had helped the team to acclimatise easily.

“I think the boys are sweating in this 13-degree weather in comparison to the threes that we had back in 2019, and the boys are acclimatising pretty well.

“I think the few days leading up to the series are certainly doing us well. I think whenever you come to these parts of the world, an extra couple of days will always be beneficial to the team, and the guys are settling in well, and we’re ready to go tomorrow,” Hope said.

“ . . .This is a continuation from what we did over the last few months as a squad, especially the backend of 2024, and we still have the same goal in mind.

“The few guys who have been in as replacements, they have been around the setup for a little while as well. Even if they weren’t named in the squad, they have been around the team, so they have an understanding of what we’re trying to achieve going forward. We’re all on the same page, everyone is ready to jump on that same train and get on that 2027 World Cup,” he maintained.

Hope admitted that he was pleased with the direction the team was headed.

He said they had addressed several areas of concern and were much closer to playing the brand of cricket they had identified.

“I think that we’ve shown glimpses of the brand that we’re trying to play. The last few series that we have been involved in, the guys have really shown that we are one of the teams to be reckoned with going forward,” Hope said.

“We just have to ensure that we understand what’s in front of us every single time we go out to play, understand the conditions quickly.

“But it’s more of a take the first punch mentality, I would say, instead of waiting back and allowing the opposition to get on top of us. So we’ve been showing great signs of that, and the preparations that we have been doing over the last couple of weeks, last couple of months have always been geared towards that,” he added.

(CMC)