West Indies might have played their last Test more than six month ago, but coach Ottis Gibson says his team is high on confidence as it gets ready to take on India in two-Test series next month.
"We know we have a lot of talented players in our team. We are a spirited team. 'One team, one goal' is the focus of our side. The spirit and confidence in the team is high. There's a lot of camaraderie going around in the camp. We hope that shows when we get on the field," Gibson said while addressing the media here today.
The coach, however, admitted that their preparation was not ideal, although they had an intensive one-week team building exercise in Miami in the US before coming to India.
"It was not ideal obviously... We were kind of getting ready for New Zealand and when this the tour came about, we went to Miami last week for a team building. A lot of guys were playing around and the Champions League just finished," he said.
West Indies will be playing a warm-up game against Uttar Pradesh here, commencing tomorrow.
"We have been playing cricket, not red ball cricket though. We now have the opportunity here in Kolkata and we're looking forward to get into the mode of red ball cricket," Gibson told reporters.
"We have a great mix of experience players and youngsters. Quite a few guys played here during the 'A' team's tour only last month. We have been playing a lot of cricket all around the world. This week is an important week for us to get back into the mode," he added.
Asked whether the facilities in US were adequate, the 44-year-old said: "There's a brand new stadium... The pitch was under prepared when we got there. We did manage to have some practice on an arranged pitch.
