India, West Indies T20I series before World T20 stands cancelled

Ahead of World T20, India was all set to play a three-match T20I series against the hosts West Indies. Though the series was yet to be officially announced by the two boards; now the scheduled series between India and Windies in St. Kitts has been called off.

BCCI proposed the plan for the series earlier in July; where India will get to play three T20Is against Windies in the last week of October, just before the official World T20 warm-up matches start. But the series is not included in the ICC Women's Championship (2017-20), and West Indies is scheduled to host India in near future.

"CWI & BCCI were hoping to schedule three International T20s in St. Kitts ahead of the Women's World T20, as part of our respective preparation plans. As the series was not part of any bilateral future tours programme, CWI has been discussing the financials with the BCCI and unfortunately, the matches will now not be taking place," CWI shared to CricBuzz. "Both teams will instead be training in Antigua before the ICC preparation period begins."

This bilateral T20I series was crucial especially for India, as it was a chance to get acclimatised to the Caribbean conditions. India have relatively few players having experienced such conditions, as in their 15-member squad, only captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Mithali Raj, Veda Krishnamurthy and Ekta Bisht have played in the West Indies before.

Though they have won the five-match T20I series 4-0 (one wash-out) against Sri Lanka and their few experiments became fruitful but India have a not-so-good record in the World T20 as they failed to qualify for the knockouts since 2012. India reached the semis in the two inaugural editions of the tournament in 2009 and 2010. They will ride high on hope to win as this can be another chance similar to that of the 2017 World Cup campaign.



On the other hand, West Indies team, who had a drought season compared to other teams as they were whitewashed by White Ferns earlier this year and held the South Africa series by the 2-2 draw. West Indies will, however, try to retain and clinch their second World-Cup title.



India will now attend a 10-day conditioning camp in Mumbai, before leaving for the West Indies on October 27. Their two official WT20 warm-up games will start from November 4. First one against defending champions West Indies in Antigua, and the second one against 50-over champions England on November 7 in Guyana.



West Indies is placed in Group A, along with South Africa, Sri Lanka, England and Bangladesh whereas India is placed in Group B, along with Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Ireland. India will start their World T20 campaign against New Zealand on November 9 at Providence Stadium, Guyana; while West Indies will face Bangladesh at the same venue later in the day.