The team went into camp on Monday minus top order batsman Hamilton Masakadza and captain Brendan Taylor who are both committed at the Bangladesh Premier League.
The two will link up with the rest of the squad next week.
Butcher, who is presiding on the team in his last tour as national team coach with his contract running out in April, said he was hoping that the team would improve mental psych and compete.
“We have play fairly well at home where we have won about 50 % of our One-Day-Internationals but we always have problems when we play away from home,” said Butcher. “This is something that we are going to try and work on in the next two weeks and we have brought in a psychologist because it’s more of a mental problem than it is technical. It is going to be very tough in the West Indies they have been playing well in the last 12 months. But we will go there to play positively as usual and if we believe in our abilities we have a good chance of winning something there.”
Buther also said he was worried about the lack of depth in the batting line-up something he blame d on the low standards of the domestic league.
“We have a few batsman that we over rely on, once those guys fail to get the runs we do not have other players who step in and score runs.
We need to have other guys coming in and contributing meaningfully for us to have any chance of winning against top sides. But that said we will be working on our batting we have so much potential.”
A squad of 19 players started preparing for this tour in Harare this week and there is a good chance that former national team captain Elton Chigumbura who had been initially omitted will be included after an impressive display with the bat in the Bangladesh Premier League.
Butcher had earlier said that he was disappointed they had to drop the all-rounder who was struggling for form and fitness.
But the right hand batsman has hit top form after recovering from nagging knee injury which limited his participation in the domestic league.
Zimbabwe will face the West Indies in two Tests which will be preceeded by two Twenty-20 international and three One-Day-Internationals.
Batsman Chamu Chibhabha and Craig Ervine as well as the bowling duo of Tino Mutombodzi and Natsai Mushangwe will travel only for the limited overs after which they return home while Ray Price, Sean Williams, Tymcen Maruma and Graeme Cremer will join the squad for the longer version.
SQUAD
Brendan Taylor, Tino Mawoyo, Vusi Sibanda, Hamilton Masakadza, Regis Chakabva, Malcolm Waller, Kyle Jarvis, Keegan Meth, Tendai Chatara, Chris Mpofu, Prosper Utseya, Sean Williams, Timycen Maruma, Raymond Price, Graeme Cremer, Chamu Chibhabha, Craig Ervine, Tino Mutombodzi and Natsai Mushangwe
Post published in: Cricket