The three-match T20I series against New Zealand, which begins with the first match in Kingston on August 11, will be West Indies’ last before they announce their squad for the T20 World Cup, for which they need to qualify by competing against Zimbabwe, Scotland and Ireland in Group B in the first round.
“I think the three matches will be important for a lot of players as well as some players who will be rested. But, in general, after that we will have to make a decision.”
“We showed in glimpses that we are capable of competing – sometimes with the ball and sometimes with the bat; probably, we never put everything together”
Phil Simmons
West Indies’ batting was particularly poor in Florida, where they were dismissed for 132 and 100 in the two T20Is. Simmons called for greater game awareness and application from his batters. I think the major lesson is that we gave away our wickets a little bit too cheaply,” he said. “And if we continue to bat [deep], we will be up there with the run rate, but we keep losing too many wickets and we’ve got to learn from this series.
There are concerns for West Indies on the bowling front too and against top teams like India, they need to fire with both bat and ball, Simmons stressed.
“It’s always going to be difficult playing against India. It’s the best T20 team in the world – man for man,” Simmons said. “But we showed in glimpses that we are capable of competing – sometimes with the ball and sometimes with the bat. Probably, we never put everything together. That’s the lesson we are going to take from this. We have to put everything together on the day to beat the top teams.”
“We all know that he has excellent skills,” Simmons said. “But there’s a lot of bowlers around the world who have excellent skills and go for runs on one day and bowl well the next day. It’s how he comes back from it. He’s shown that he can bowl; so, he will come back from it.”