West Indies head coach Phil Simmons is stressing on the importance of the team building large opening partnerships.
Simmons was at the time speaking to the media after his side’s innings and 63-run defeat at the hands of South Africa in St. Lucia last week.
Since 2020, West Indies have played 10 Tests with the opening partnership averaging a meager 19.
In those 20 innings, there has been two partnerships of over 50 coming against New Zealand in 2020 and Bangladesh earlier this year.
When asked about the opening partnership dilemma, Simmons said, “Yes, and that’s one of the things we have been trying to work on very desperately because if you watch back, a lot of times when we win Test matches against top teams we have opening stands.
”I think the last time we had a [decent] opening stand was between John Campbell and Kraigg that has not been happening and we are working very hard on that,” he added.
During this period, West Indies captain, Kraigg Brathwaite has shared the top of the order duties repeatedly with John Campbell who averages 23.7 in his 15 Tests with two fifties. Campbell, though, has been dropped for this ongoing South Africa series and Brathwaite has opened with Shai Hope who made 15 with a partnership of 24 in the first innings and was pushed down to three with Kieran Powell opening in the second innings. Powell also struggled, making 14 with the opening partnership worth 12.
The last time West Indies had a century partnership for the opening wicket was back in 2018 in the first Test against Bangladesh in Antigua. In that match, Brathwaite made 121 in the first innings and shared in a 113-run partnership with Devon Smith who made 58. West Indies won that match by an innings and 219 runs.
Simmons admitted that it was disappointing to see the statistics showing Brathwaite as the only opener to score centuries in recent times.
Brathwaite has been the most consistent opener for the West Indies since his debut a decade ago with nine centuries to his name while averaging 33 from 69 Tests.
