The West Indies have to be in both the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe and a two-match Test series against India at home. This makes it hard to plan their schedule. The team would try to get to the final match of the qualifiers to qualify for the ODI World Cup, which will be held in India in October and November.
The qualifiers will end on July 9, and the two-match Test series against India is set to start on July 12. West Indies players like Jason Holder, Kyle Mayers, Roston Chase, and Alzarri Joseph, who are likely to play in both events, will have a hard time with the schedule.
The players will have a difficult time traveling from Zimbabwe to Dominica so they can play the first Test against the Rohit Sharma-led team. Cricbuzz says that Cricket West Indies (CWI) is trying to solve the practical problems with the same.
Normal foreign travel takes two days, which is a problem because the players will only have one day to get ready for the Test match. A CWI source said that the board has many options, but that qualifying for the World Cup will be their main goal.
“We have a lot of choices, but first we have to get into the CWC. The CWCQ final doesn’t matter, so our Test players won’t play in it, but first we need to get to the final, a CWI source told Cricbuzz.
West Indies is off to a good start in the qualifying event with 10 teams. After the group stage, the teams that made it to the Super Six stage will play.
The top two teams from the Super Six group will move on to the ODI World Cup.
By July 1, India will be in the Caribbean.
After the 2023 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, Team India is now taking a break. The team led by Rohit Sharma lost by a crushing 209 runs to Australia, which was led by Pat Cummins, at The Oval in London in early June.
Notably, this was their second loss in a row in the WTC final. They lost the first one to New Zealand in 2021. The upcoming two-match Test series against West Indies will be their first task in the new World Test Championship cycle (2023-25). The Indian team should arrive in the West Indies on July 1.