As New West Indies' Test captain Roston Chase, believes that he can bring the best out of his players as he hopes to improvement during the new WTC cycle.
Despite Chase's lack of recent game-time in red-ball cricket and as captain, the Barbadian aims is to finish higher than this year’s second-to-last as he leads his squad in their three-match series against Australia starting on Wednesday 25th June.
00:00The opening test between the men in Maroon and Australia starting Wednesday in Barbados will be the 50th for new Wendy's captain Roston Chase. It's also his first for the Caribbean side since March 2023, making it two years that he last played the longest format.
00:17Yeah, well, first lead, 50th test match, I mean, it's a great honour and privilege for me to achieve that milestone, so I'm really thankful for it. I mean, it'll be my first game as captain, so I think it'll be a little emotional for me, but I think that once I could overcome that and put that energy towards the cricket, it'll be good for me.
00:41The West Indies finished 8th out of 9 teams in the previous WTC cycle, with Pakistan taking last spot. The opening test will be the start of the new cycle for both the Wendy's and Aussies, and Chase is hoping for an improvement heading into the series.
00:57Hopefully we can bring some new energy and, you know what I mean, we can turn it around. I mean, we've been on the bottom half of the table for a number of years now, so we're really looking to change that and see if we can make a change in West Indies cricket for the better.
01:13Looking back at last year's Gabba test, Pacer Shamar Joseph took seven wickets in the second innings, which helped the West Indies level the series at 1-1. And Chase is hoping that the Aussies are still thinking about that, since Joseph is in the team.
01:29I hope there are some scars. I mean, if they're still thinking about that going out there tomorrow, that'll be very good for us. I think that that will be part of the job done for us. So, yeah, I hope they're still hurting.
01:42Focusing on the new cycle, Chase says the team is not looking at a top two finish to reach the WTC final in 2027. Instead, the aim is to take it step by step.
01:54Obviously, we don't want to set goals that are beyond our reach, set our hats too high. So, we said if we could finish between fourth and sixth, because we have 14 games in this cycle.
02:08So, if we could win 44% of those games, that would put us in a position at the end of the cycle to be around fourth or sixth.
02:17The final 11 for the opening test for the West Indies is as follows.
02:22Craig Brathwaite, John Campbell, Casey Carty, Brandon King, Roston Chase, the captain, Shea Hope, who is the keeper, Justin Graves, Jomel Warrickon, Al-Zari Joseph, Shammar Joseph and Jaden Seals.
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