'A wonderful opportunity for everyone', says WI head coach Andre Coley ahead of Australia Tests

Adelaide : West Indies will go into serious preparation mode for their upcoming two-match Test series against Australia with a three-day game against a Cricket Australia XI at the Karen Rolton Oval on Wednesday and head coach Andre Coley sees this as a wonderful opportunity for everyone in the team, including the seven uncapped players.

From the team which played in the 2022 Test tour of Australia, only skipper Kraigg Brathwaite, Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph, Joshua Da Silva and Tagenarine Chanderpaul are in the West Indies team for the 2023 tour.

Notable omissions include Jason Holder and Kyle Mayers, who are playing in franchise T20 leagues, while Jayden Seales is out due to a shoulder injury. "At the moment we have a number of white-ball franchise tournaments that are happening at around the same time, we have a couple of injuries as well so when you put all of that together it will have impacted some of the selection."

"But with that said, it does not take away from the fact the players who are here on tour actually merit their selection. So it's an opportunity for the players that are here to express themselves and play against a team who won the last (World) Test Championship. It's a wonderful opportunity for everyone," said Coley to cricket.com.au.

West Indies also have the services of former Australia pacer Shaun Tait as an assistant coach for this tour. Coley further thought that keeping an open mind about the pitches they will get in Australia will be the key.

"That's the thing about pitches, no two are the same. So as you play on them you assess and you work out what the approach is going to be. Similarly in a Test match, you have an idea how Adelaide pitches will play but we'll take it one step at a time."

"We'll tackle the three-day match and get as much as we can from the three-day and from the surface that's offered, and then when the Test match comes around we'll deal with that," he signed off.