West Indies has slumped to ninth in the ICC world Twenty20 rankings, but is of little concern to Head Coach Phil Simmons, which he believes can work to his team’s advantage if the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia comes off in Australia in October.
Since winning the Twenty20 World Cup under Simmons four years ago in India, the regional team has slid down the rankings and now lie ninth only above minnows Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe.
In fact, the West Indies has won just 15 of their 46 Twenty20 Internationals since the 2016 World Cup in India.
Simmons said: “I don’t think the rankings means anything at the end of the day. I think our squad showed what it can do in these T20s in Sri Lanka (last March) and it’s a case where it was a squad that was just getting together, and you could add the fact it was a squad without Elvin Lewis. We know each other’s game in this format and I think the time period we’ll have, we’ll make the best use of it to get ourselves ready, and I hope some of the bigger teams take us for granted as we won’t have much work under our belts.”
As it stands, however, doubt surrounds the Twenty20 World Cup due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has halted cricket across the globe.
The tournament is scheduled for Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 but the International Cricket Council is yet to make a decision on whether to postpone the tournament.
