West Indies, Pakistan keen to get back to winning ways

Ahead of the first T20I against Pakistan, West Indies captain, Stafanie Taylor has said that her side will not underestimate the opponents, while Pakistan’s captain Javeria Khan has vowed to correct the mistakes made from their series against South Africa. The two teams will play the first of the three T20Is on Wednesday (June 30) at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.



“We have been in the camp for 60 days now. We are in a good space," said Taylor in a media interaction on Tuesday.



"We even had an outing just to see how it feels like to be back outside. We had a good in training getting ready for (the) first game.”



West Indies last played a bilateral T20I series against England in September 2020. Though the series ended in a crushing 5-0 defeat for them Deandra Dottin and Shamilia Connell shined with bat and ball, respectively. The team will start this series with an eye on multiple ICC tournaments in the near future.



“Going into the series, we know we have a lot of games coming up. And for us, it’s taking each game at a time," said Taylor.



"The last series we played was against England (but what has changed is that) we have been in camp for almost two months. I know that expectations are high but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Pakistan has been playing some good cricket so we are not underestimating anybody.”



While the national teams play five ODIs after the three T20Is, the 'A' teams will also be in action for three T20s and three fifty-over games.



“When we won the (T20) World Cup I said that we need to start developing young players," said Taylor, the captain of the title-winning team in 2016. "It is five or so years forward but I think it’s actually good and (am) excited as well. It’s really good for West Indies Cricket moving forward. Improvement and development is what we want to see.”



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Javeria Khan will lead the Pakistani side in the absence of regular skipper Bismah Maroof, who is currently on maternity leave. Pakistan’s last assignment was an away tour against South Africa in January 2021. Though the host nation won the series, there were glimpses of hope for Pakistan. Fatima Sana Khan, a 19-year-old, from Sindh, was one of the positives for Pakistan.



“(Fatima Sana) is a young talented player. She is a hard-working player. We are not pressurizing her in any way," said Khan. "We only have one clear message for her and every player and that is to enjoy their cricket. And everyone will try and give their best performance.”



Khan also reflected on her team’s response to previous mistakes and said, “We are always planning for better results. We are going to try and learn from our previous mistakes and give better results this time. We all have skills but we need to learn how to absorb the pressure better”



The South Africa series was the first international tour for Pakistan after a disappointing T20 World Cup campaign in Australia.



“We were rough against South Africa. We have worked on our fielding because we were not able to capitalise on some of the chances. Our skillset is really good but we lacked to performance under pressure. What matters is how we convert our potential under pressure. And we have tried to rectify that,” she concluded.