West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons has not ruled his side out of the third Test and consequently the series despite the team in a tricky position.
Simmons was at the time speaking to the media yesterday via a virtual press conference following the end of the third day against England which saw the visitors closing on 10 for two, still 389 runs away from victory.
With two days to bat to either retain the Wisden Trophy by virtue of a draw or win, Simmons said “Tomorrow is only the fourth day so they got a lot of time to bat and we got to show that determination to get big scores.”
The head coach once again reiterated his call for the batsmen to come good and cash in on a big century despite no batsmen in the West Indies side crossing that triple figure mark as yet.
“We haven’t had any century this series so I am always going to be putting pressure on them to go out there and get it. The wicket is still a good wicket to bat on so they have to set themselves targets of getting a big hundred on this wicket,” Simmons insisted.
He admitted that it has been a struggle for runs saying “I think yes we are struggling where the runs is concerned and we have struggled since the second innings of the second Test but all-in-all a lot of work has been done.”On the other hand, Simmons reckoned that facing the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad is tough, especially in English conditions.
“Where ever you go it’s going to be tough… In England it’s going to be toughest with two bowlers one nearing 600, one nearing 500 wickets and it’s going to make things hard,” Simmons stated while adding, “I think on these wickets we’ve showed in the first innings on the second Test that we handled it, we were doing what was necessary, we were getting scores, we got a few fifties but we got to carry on and these guys keep coming and they are relentless so I think it is one of the most difficult places to bat especially against these two so experienced fast bowlers.”
