HOPE…I just think that we need to be a bit more consistent as a team, but the
preparations have been going well (Photo: AFP)
BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — West Indies One-Day International (ODI) Captain Shai Hope is viewing the upcoming ODI series against Bangladesh as the perfect opportunity to climb the ICC’s ODI rankings.
The West Indies sit in 10th position on 73 points, 12 fewer than Bangladesh who sit one spot above them.
Speaking in a pre-match interview on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s opening match, Hope said the West Indies had set their sights on moving up the rankings heading into the new year.
“We’ve been playing a lot of cricket for the past three months and been pretty successful,” he said. “We’ve been playing solid cricket, in most parts.
“I just think that we need to be a bit more consistent as a team, but the preparations have been going well. We’re here today trying to get our final prep down, and I think the guys are ready and raring to go.
“It’s very important [to finish the year strong]. Like I said and I will always keep saying, every single game is crucial for us.
“We’re trying to climb that ladder in the rankings, and in order for us to do so we’ve got to be a lot more consistent as a team. And with the calibre of players that we’ve got now, we’ve gained a lot more experience and guys are falling into their roles very nicely.
“We know that Bangladesh is ahead of us in the rankings so it’s a great opportunity for us to play some good cricket and come up trumps against them.”
Hope said it was especially pleasing to see the West Indies mature as a team.
The captain maintained that he had seen a definite change and improvement in the players’ mindsets, which had resulted in better performances.
“We’ve been progressing. As a team, we can see improvements in different areas. For me, the most important thing is the mindset, and I can see a clear change for us as a team and it’s good to see that guys are buying into things that we are mentioning in meetings.
“Obviously, with the short turnaround in-between tours it’s difficult to get certain things in place the way you want but it’s great to see the guys are buying into the mindset and the attitude that we are trying to play cricket with. So, we just need to continue to do that into 2025 and hope that we can get a lot more series wins and games.”
