West Indies left the field yesterday with four substitute fielders as England set them 399 for victory. Head coach, Phil Simmons is standing by the decision to play the current 11 as he believes is the best side for the match.
Simmons affirmed his position on the side in yesterday’s media briefing where he stated “at the end of the day we thought that the team we played was the best team for the game added to the fact that it is the challenge game with it being 1-1 so I think every consideration was made when we made the decision to go with the 11.”
The head coach pointed out “Fitness is one of the first thing you take into consideration and everyone on the park had been fit so I think that is one of the things we took into consideration. As I said before, the fast bowlers have done a lot of work and I don’t see any of them faltering in this game and I think fitness is a thing you take into consideration and we did use that also.” When asked about Shannon Gabriel leaving the field after just five overs, Simmons confirmed that it was not due to fitness but rather an issue with his toe. He also updated the media on Shane Dowrich’s condition following a hit on the mouth while keeping wicket.
“I think he [Dowrich] was lucky it came off the glove first, he has a cut on the lip, no damage to the teeth or anything like that, just the cut and it has been sealed up by the doctor so I guess all he has now is a big headache,” Simmons said but indicated “I think the Dowrich issue and the Shannon issue it doesn’t add up to having fresh legs, I think they all had fresh legs when we started the Test match.”
