Young gun, Jayden Seales is standing firm behind West Indies to make a positive start to the new year as they prepare to face Ireland in thee One-Day Internationals and one T20I from tomorrow.
Seales, who joins the limited overs squad for the first time, told the media yesterday that he was happy to get the opportunity while giving an insight to his side’s training.
He said, “It’s my first time around the ODI set up so I am not sure what it was like before but as of now it’s obviously a good feeling being in the camp…the boys seem to gel well and with Pollard as the captain at the helm, he always seems to bring that never-say-die attitude and positivity …so it’s just about going out with that same attitude and positivity.”
According to the 20-year-old, West Indies he feels that the West Indies will win the series.
“I would like to think we would win because obviously, no one comes out to play a cricket game and lose, everyone looks to put their best foot forward and from the one training session we had yesterday, the intensity was good, everyone had good positive energy, training hard, putting in the effort so come the day of the game I would like to think we would put in a good performance for the Caribbean people and ourselves and get the job done.”
From a personal standpoint Seales has been enjoying success in the shorter format, most recently in the Sri Lanka Premier League where he finished third on the list of leading bowlers after returning 15 wickets for Jaffna Kings in seven innings. Only Galle Gladiators’ Samit Patel and Kings’ Maheesh Teekshana finished with more wickets (16) but both played 10 matches.
He recalled that from that tournament he was able to adapt fast and take advice from the senior players particularly Wahab Riaz and Suranga Lakmal.
“In terms of the fast bowling, I would hang around Suranga Lakmal and Wahab Riaz, they would mentor me in terms of my death bowling because I think that was my biggest struggle for me in the tournament to bowl my yorkers and things like that so being around those guys gave me a little more confidence in my death bowling and helped me throughout the tournament,” he said.
While seeing improvement in that department, the Trinidadian pacer believes that he still needs to keep realistic goals, one of which is to contribute to match wins.
“For me I tend to set very realistic goals… I try to keep it simple as possible so if I get to play and I get three wickets or two wickets in a winning effort I would be very pleased with that,” Seales explained.
West Indies ODI squad: Kieron Pollard (captain), Shai Hope, Shamarh Brooks, Roston Chase, Justin Greaves, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Jayden Seales, Nicholas Pooran, Romario Shepherd, Odean Smith, Devon Thomas
