West Indies are riding high on confidence after impressive performances against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. With two wins and a draw in the space of a month, the Caribbean side is now looking to turn its home ground into a fortress.
West Indies produced a brilliant performance to win the first Test of their series against Pakistan in Trinidad by 90 runs. Earlier, they had beaten Sri Lanka by a huge margin of an innings and 217 runs, before the two sides drew the second match of that series.
West Indies will look to build on their recent success when they take on Pakistan in the second Test on Sunday. Speaking at a press conference the day before the match, captain Roston Chase said the team wants to remain unbeaten at home.
“We want to make our home ground our fortress. We want to make it very difficult for other teams to come to the Caribbean and win matches,” he said.
Despite their strong form against Sri Lanka and Pakistan over the past month, the period before that was far from good for West Indies. They managed to win only one of 10 Tests last year, a run that also eliminated them from contention for the World Test Championship final.
But following that difficult year, the Caribbean side was determined to turn things around, and Chase believes the benefits of that effort are now showing.
“After going through that last year, we sat down, planned, and said this is where we want to see ourselves. We are now exactly where we wanted to be. We want to take our game to the next level,” he said.
“We want to go into this second Test without taking anything lightly, relying on the processes we discussed earlier. We want to go out on the field, implement them to the best of our ability, and aim to pick up the second win.”
The Caribbean all-rounder also vowed to turn the home ground into a fortress.
“I’m very grateful and pleased with the results we’ve achieved so far at home. We want to turn our home ground into a fortress that makes it very difficult for any team to beat us when they come to the Caribbean,” he said.
“These are our own conditions, which we know inside and out, much better than our opponents. We should take full advantage of home-field advantage, and so far we’ve been doing that well. So we’re really pleased to have the opportunity to secure victory in this second match and continue our recent streak.”
