Estwick: ‘Players’ improvement trumps series victory’

West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick says the improvement shown in the recent Twenty20 International series against England was perhaps more pleasing than the actual 3-2 victory in the five-match rubber.

With the series tied 2-2, the home side beat the world number one by 17 runs in a dramatic finish to the finale at Kensington Oval on Sunday, to claim only their second multi-game series win over England.

More importantly, the success came on the heels of a 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan last December and an embarrassing outing at the Twenty20 World Cup a few months earlier, when they managed just one win in their group stage campaign.

“After the last couple of months that we’ve had, it’s really pleasing that we’ve won a series,” Estwick said.

“It was very important to bounce back. We’ve been having good meetings, we’ve exposed a lot of youngsters in this series and we’re beginning to show some kind of improvement so that’s very important.

“Improvement for me is actually more important than winning the series because you’ve got to focus on getting to the 2022 World Cup and doing a lot better than we did in the last one.”

Due to their poor showing last year, West Indies will have to go through pre-tournament qualifiers in order to reach the main draw of the T20 World Cup in Australia from October 16 to November 13.

The England series, which marked the return of international cricket to Kensington Oval for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, proved a blockbuster.

Also playing in front of fully vaccinated fans, West Indies crushed England by nine wickets in the opener before agonisingly losing the second by a single run.

They bounced back to win the third game by 20 runs but England levelled the series with an important 34-run victory.

“When you look at the four pitches that we played on, the first one wasn’t the best but every pitch has gotten better and better,” Estwick pointed out.

“The crowds coming back to the stadium is very important, The players were a lot freer this time around. The bubble was still there but a lot more relaxed and you could see the players responding to it so credit to the medical staff of the West Indies Board.

“But credit must go to England. It was a tremendous series – probably one of the best T20 series that we’ve had in history and it shows that T20 cricket is here to stay.”

He added: “For us, it’s seeing us continue to improve and us continuing to grow, continue to work hard, continue to have cricket discussions and hopefully these boys can move us to the next level.”

Estwick was full of praise for all-rounder Jason Holder whose five-wicket haul on Sunday – including four wickets in as many deliveries in the final over of England’s run chase – sealed West Indies’ victory.

“He didn’t have a great game [in the fourth T20 International] with the ball and it was really fitting he could come back [in the fifth game] and really produce what he produced,” said Estwick.

“Akeal Hosein was really brilliant for us when the chips were down [along with] Fabian Allen. They turned the tide, put England under pressure, continued to get wickets and that’s all we can ask, that people put their hands up when they need to and lead and fight and battle.” (CMC)