PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Young West Indies manager Omar Khan wants his charges to take their thinking of the game to a higher level in order to be competitive at the Youth World Cup in January next year in New Zealand.

Young West Indies have been drawn in Group-D of the Championship, along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea.

They open the competition against the Pakistanis on January 15 at Palmerston North.

“We have an abundance of talent on this team with players like Akeem Dewar, Kraigg Brathwaite, Andre Creary, Trevon Griffith, Yannick Ottley, Yannick Carriah, and Evin Lewis to name a few,” he said.

“The challenge, as I see it, is to get these guys to lift their thinking ahead of the World Cup.”

He added: “The players have to get more studious as far as the game is concerned. We are hoping to have a camp by mid-December where we will do a lot of mental preparation work, so hopefully, we will be able to make headway in that direction.”

Khan noted the team had been set back in its preparations in Guyana during the recent regional limited-overs competition, badly affected by rain.

“The rain affected us at that tournament, and we really had only one game,” he said.

“In that game, the guys played really well, and almost upset Barbados. We could have done much more but because of a lack of playing time that was not possible.

He continued: “Having said that, I was happy with the commitment and dedication shown by the players however. We have a group here that can make the West Indies proud, and we will continue to work right up to the tournament.”

The date for the West Indies Cricket Board to submit the final 15 players to the International Cricket Council, the sport’s World governing body, is December 15.

A training camp is to be staged before they depart in mid-January for the tournament.