BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Head coach Phil Simmons hopes the ongoing skills camp in Antigua will help correct West Indies’ erratic batting which has plagued them in the white-ball format.
In recent years, the Caribbean side has struggled to bat through their quota of overs, especially in the 50-over version, leading to a run of defeats and their slide to ninth in the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings.
Simmons said one of the major focuses of the two-week camp at Coolidge Cricket Ground was rectifying this issue with the batting group.
“I think we’re getting to the stage where between overs seven and 15 in T20s and overs 11 to 35 in ODIs where we’re being stalled and that’s why we’re losing too many wickets,” Simmons explained.
“So we’re trying to make sure we’re not stalled anymore and our scoring board percentage goes up from 60 per cent or wherever it is to 70 per cent so that we would be scoring in that period.
“And we know how strong we can be at 40 to 50 overs or over the last four overs in a T20. So that’s been the scope of how we look at things and how we want to improve.”
He said it was critical the middle order understood their role, which was ensuring rotation of strike especially during the crucial middle overs.
Simmons’s concerns were reflected in the Carib-bean side’s recent tour of India where they scraped totals of 176 batting first and 193 and 169 while chasing, as they crashed to a 3-0 whitewash.
All-rounder Jason Holder, batting at number seven, was the only West Indies batsmen to manage a half-century during the disappointing series for the visitors.
“The thing with all the batsmen in the middle whether it be (Nkrumah) Bonner, whether it be (Nicholas) Pooran, whether it be whoever is batting in the middle, [they] need to able to continue to rotate the strike as well as to score boundaries here and there,” Simmons said.
“To make sure that when we get to the position of overs 35 to 40 or 40 to 45, or overs 15, 16, 17 [in T20s] that we can up the tempo because we have wickets in hand and have been scoring consistently in those periods.
“With four fielders outside the circle in 50-overs, you have to keep scoring and it gets harder when five are outside.”
Batsmen like Shamarh Brooks, Darren Bravo, Roston Chase, Shai Hope and Bonner have been among 16 players entrenched in the camp which Cricket West Indies said was focussed on “improving skill sets.”
And Simmons said he was particularly thrilled by the disciplined approach and application of the players.
“I think the pleasing thing here is the attitude because just to drill and drill on things … it’s not easy to do. But their attitude here has been great,” he said.
