All contests are to be staged at Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground with no spectator present to mitigate the health risks posed by the novel coronavirus.
After hosts Australia hoisted the T20 World Cup crown in March, the international women’s game had been halted due to the pandemic.
Though world number-two rated England have home advantage against the sixth-ranked visitors, Windies Women interim Head Coach Andre Coley believes the months without competitive cricket has levelled the playing field.
“Both teams have not played any international cricket for some time. So the way we see it is that we are both starting on even keel,” he said during a pre-game virtual media interaction from the team’s base in Derby.
“We are very happy that our preparations have gone well and we are all positive about the outcome of the series. Everybody is looking forward to getting started tomorrow [today],” Coley told journalists yesterday.
When the teams last met — during the group stage of the 2020 T20 World Cup — England Women, who went on to reach the semi-finals, won easily. West Indies, who could only manage victory over Thailand, failed to progress from the preliminary stage.
Coley — not part of the coaching set-up at the time — said that the World Cup disappointment will have little bearing on the outcome of the series.
“That’s way off from where we are at the moment. Our focus is what’s ahead of us at the moment,” the Jamaican former wicketkeeper argued.
West Indies arrived in England on August 31, and while confined to a biosecure environment to reduce exposure to the virus, there were numerous training sessions and two intra-squad warm-up contests.
“We have worked well the last two weeks. Obviously, we had to come and acclimatise to the conditions. We’ve been able to effectively manage all areas of our preparation [which are] cricket-specific and strength and conditioning.
“It was very good that in all the innings [of the practice games] that we played we batted the full complement of overs. There were individual performances as well as partnerships throughout. It was also good for everyone to have had some time out in the middle in a competitive environment, which they haven’t had for a while,” Coley said.
The Windies interim coach insisted that the performance of the batting unit will be most significant factor.
“Our bowling department has always held its own very well. We will need to pose challenging totals and be able to chase them as well. Just [be] clear in our roles…and how we are going to go about approaching the batting.
“From a bowling standout we are happy that we’ve been hitting our marks. We’ve gone through our fielding exercises and we are very comfortable,” he said.
“We’ve been interacting very well…the vibe in the camp has been very good from the start. It’s been very good — both players and from a support staff standpoint. We’ve been very close and we believe we just need to continue with this for the next 10 days or so,” Coley added.
The second match of the series is set for Wednesday, with others booked for September 26, 28 and 30.
Squads: England — Heather Knight (captain), Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt, Kate Cross, Freya Davies, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Katie George, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver, Anya Shrubsole, Mady Villiers, Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Danni Wyatt.
West Indies — Stafanie Taylor (captain), Deandra Dottin, Shemaine Campbelle, Afy Fletcher, Hayley Matthews, Shamilia Connell, Britney Cooper, Chedean Nation, Natasha McLean, Chinelle Henry, Aaliyah Alleyne, Lee-Ann Kirby, Sheneta Grimmond, Karishma Ramharack, Shabika Gajnabi, Cherry-Ann Fraser, Kaysia Schultz.