(Sportsmax) The West Indies T20 outfit will get their first opportunity to compete since their Super Eight exit at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June when they take on South Africa in the first of three T20 Internationals at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Friday.
In what promises to be a competitive series, the hosts will be looking for revenge against the team that knocked them out of their home tournament with a three-wicket win via the DLS method in Antigua in their final Super Eight match on June 23.
South Africa eventually got all the way to the final before narrowly losing to India.
West Indies skipper Rovman Powell likes the chemistry he’s seen from his group during their preparation for the upcoming series.
“I think it’s very good. It’s the first series since the World Cup so it’s an important one in the sense that we have to get back on track as a T20 team and I think so far, so good,” he said in a pre-match interview on Thursday.
The squad for the series comprises 12 of the 15 players that represented the region in the World Cup with Powell emphasising keeping the core of the squad together with one eye on the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Alick Athanaze, Fabian Allen and Matthew Forde are the three new members of the squad, replacing Brandon King, Alzarri Joseph and Andre Russell.
“We try our best as a selection group to keep it as close as possible to those guys in the World Cup looking forward to 2026,” Powell said.
“It’s also an opportunity for us to see other players like Alick (Athanaze), Fabian (Allen), Matthew (Forde) that we identified. Hopefully, once given the opportunity, they can grasp it with both hands,” he added.
Speaking about the team’s performance at the World Cup, Powell found some positives despite exiting the tournament earlier than they had hoped.
“I think we played good cricket. We had a clean slate right through the preliminary stage and faltered in the quarterfinals. I think we showed that we are a quality unit and if we prepare well and have the right plans, we can be successful at the international level,” he said.
With the West Indies currently sitting fourth in the ICC rankings, Powell also spoke about where the team wants to be at the end of 2025. Is it a case of wanting to just be high in the rankings or playing good cricket?
“I think it’s a mixture of both. Gone are the days when you played series just to play them. You use these series as building blocks and nothing is more important than winning. Once you win games you improve your ranking in the ICC standings and also guys become more familiar with roles and more encouraged to play for West Indies because the atmosphere and environment is a winning one,” he said.
“People want to associate themselves with winners so this is a building block for 2026. It might seem a long way away but we just need to continue to play good cricket series by series,” he added.
