Chase wants WI to be competitive

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand:

West Indies Test captain, Roston Chase is calling for his troops to carry their performances from the recently concluded T20 International series against New Zealand into their upcoming three-match Test series.

The Windies will be chasing their first Test series win in almost three years, and their first Test win in New Zealand in 38 years. The opening match bowled off at Hagley Oval yesterday evening.

Speaking in a pre-match interview on Sunday, Chase said even though the regional team lost the preceding T20I series 3-1, they were competitive in the majority of the matches and even had opportunities to win the series.

The skipper said while their main goal was to win the Test series, he wanted them to challenge New Zealand in all aspects of the game.

"Ideally when you come to any series the goal is to win, but the same way how the ODIs and T20s went where they had good, exciting cricket, that's the main goal, for us to play some good cricket and make the Kiwis work as hard as possible.

"But we're still looking for that win, obviously. If we can get the upper hand from early and try to put them under pressure from the first game, I think that'd be great," Chase said.

"...We won a game in the T20s, and we were very elated and then throughout the series we felt like we could have actually won the series, so we want to come and make up for our mistakes here.

"It would mean a lot. We haven't won here in very long so as I said, to be on the good side of history sometimes is a great feeling so I would love for us to get a W," he added.

Chase revealed that morale in the camp was high, despite the ninth-ranked West Indies going into the series as underdogs against the fifth-ranked Kiwis.

"There's good energy in the camp. A lot of the guys were in those [ODI and T20] teams as well, so it's just to feed that energy onto the new guys and giving them that belief and confidence that it can be done.

"It feels good to know that we've played some good cricket, and the guys have confidence coming into the series," Chase said.

He said the team's chances of a historic victory had been boosted by the inclusion of veteran pacer Kemar Roach.

With fast bowlers Alzarri and Shamar Joseph unavailable due to injury, Chase said Roach's experience and quality would be a great asset.

"To have Kemar back is a great feeling for us. He's a legend of the game, a modern-day legend for us. He has close to 300 Test wickets and you have to be some quality to get to those numbers.

"He's a senior guy; he's a leader and not just a guy that comes and does his thing and goes back to his room. He's a guy that really leads the bowling attack and encourages and supports the younger guys to come and bowl the cricket ball for long periods," Chase said.

- CMC