With ten days to go before the start of their campaign in the ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup, the West Indies are expected to make an early impact according to the experts.

The regional women will open against Ireland on January 15th, followed by Indonesia two days later and close out the group stage versus New Zealand on January 19th.

According to a release from the ICC, the West Indies will target wins against Indonesia and Ireland to ensure they progress from the group stage, while hoping to be more competitive against New Zealand than in two losses to them in November.

But after only tasting victory once in their past 10 T20s with recent losses also coming against Sri Lanka, India and the USA any success beyond the group stage could be considered a bonus.

Meanwhile, West Indies wicketkeeper-batter Shai Hope is among an impressive list of four players on the shortlist for the ICC Men’s One-Day International Player-of-the-Year 2022 award.

The others are Pakistan captain Babar Azam, Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa, and Zimbabwe all-rounder Sikandar Raza.

Hope made his ODI debut six years ago and since 2017, he has finished every year as the highest run-scorer in ODIs for the West Indies. 2022 was no different, and the 29-year-old was once again the team’s leading batter. He did not get off to the greatest of starts, but started to grind out the runs in typical fashion in the later stages of the year. His most accomplished knock came against India in Trinidad when he made 115 off 135 balls with eight fours and three sixes in his 100th ODI appearance.

Hope finished with 709 runs at an average of 35.45 that included three hundreds and two half-centuries.