Closed-door matches will give us an edge in England, reckons Phil Simmons

West Indies head coach Phil Simmons believes that the absence of home crowd support for England due to the series being played behind closed doors will give West Indies an edge.

International cricket is set to return as England will host West Indies for a three-match Test series and T20I series beginning from July 8. Phil Simmons also believed that lack of competitive cricket would also mean that England might be a bit rusty to begin with and West Indies can take advantage of it.

"I don't know if it will increase our chances, because both teams are under the same umbrella - for want of a better word," Simmons said in a video conference from the team's training base here. The nice part for us is that 20,000 Englishmen raving for England, and that crowd support, it's not there for them. So that in a way will help us, so it's good from that point of view. So, I think that is a plus for us, because it evens out things a little bit, with the fact they haven't been playing competitive cricket for a while also," Phil Simmons said in a video press conference attended by PTI.

I think we'll be ready and looking to defend our trophy : Phil Simmons

West Indies won the series 2-1 when they hosted England back home last time and thus only drawing the series would be enough for them to retain the Wisden Trophy.

Although there are notable absentees in the squad like Shimron Hetmyer and Darren Bravo who have opted to not travel to England, Simmons is confident and positive about West Indies' chances as the likes of Shai Hope and Jason Holder, etc. have already had the experience of playing in English conditions before.

Unfortunately a few guys decided not to come but we are here with the best squad that we can have here. And from the way we've started our work, the guys have been putting in, I think we'll be ready and looking to defend our trophy....we know what we'll be missing. But in situations like this we have to work hard with the guys who are here and make sure that what we're doing is putting them in a position to fill those two shoes for the series. Hopefully whoever fills the shoes can go on and be as great as they want to be,' Phil simmons stated.