KHULNA, Bangladesh – Darren Sammy said West Indies would use the five One-day Internationals against Bangladesh to advance in the World Rankings.
The Windies captain said his side would need to win all five matches in the series to secure a significant boost in the rankings and this would be the mission when the side opens the series on Friday at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium here.
West Indies are presently ranked seventh in the World with Bangladesh two places below and 23 ranking points between the two. A boost from a clean sweep would carry the visitors within touching distance of sixth-placed Pakistan, just 10 points ahead.
"First of all, we want to the series," he said. "If we accomplish the goal we are trying to achieve, 5-0 gives us five ranking points. 4-1 gives us one and 3-2 might lose us ranking points."
"I will let the guys know that to get maximum ranking points, we have got to win all five matches – but first we will look to win the series, which I think is possible if we play to our potential.
"We will take one thing at a time now, this is just the first game of a five-match series and we need to make sure we do the right things and give ourselves a good start to the series."
Sammy said West Indies had enough evidence from the preceding two Tests to know that winning all five matches will not be easy.
"We saw in the Tests that whenever it appeared they may have been down, they kept coming back at us, especially in the second Test," he said.
"They had that great partnership the No. 8 (Mahmudullah) and No. 10 (Abul Hasan) put on in the first innings.
"We are not taking them for granted. We have always held the belief that we could come here and win, once we play to our full potential, we could be a very destructive force."
Sammy will be leading the side for the first time under the new rules approved last May by the International Cricket Council, the sport’s World governing body, governing fielding restrictions.
There will be two blocks of Power Plays instead of three, and in an uninterrupted innings, the first Power Play will be restricted to the first 10 overs with only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard, field-restriction circle.
The second five-over batting Power Play (in an uninterrupted innings) will have to be completed by the 40th over and only three fielders will be allowed outside the fielding restriction area at the time of delivery.
In the non-Power Play overs, no more than four fielders will be permitted outside the 30-yard circle.
Sammy said, like vice captain Kieron Pollard the previous day following the team’s practice match against the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI, the new regulations will be taxing to captains and bowlers.
"It’s becoming more of a batsman’s game," he said. "Teams were scoring 300 runs plus with five fielders outside the circle. Now, it’s only four.
"I personally feel sorry for the spinners. They will have to come up with new ways to get wickets and to be economical."
He added: "But those are the rules and we just have to move on and try our best our best to execute our plans properly.
"We will have one more fielder in the inside the circle, which could mean more pressure on the batsmen and no easy singles. It’s a challenge, but we are hopeful we can overcome it and be successful with what we do."