Seales says important lessons gained in Antigua

Rookie West Indies seamer Jayden Seales believes the flat surface for the opening Test in Antigua last week proved a learning curve in his fledgling career.

The 20-year-old was part of a four-pronged West Indies pace attack which toiled with little assistance from the unresponsive pitch at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, as the contest against England predictably ended in a draw.

Seales, who made his Test debut last year, snatched four first innings wickets but went without success in the second innings as England piled up 349 for six declared.

“I am pleased [with my performance] but I know I could’ve done a lot better,” the Trinidadian explained.

“The pitch was not the easiest to bowl on. You always had to put in a lot of effort, always had to run in [and] use the wicket as much as possible. It was a good [game] to experience and I’m looking to learn from it.”

He continued: “[I have to] bowl straighter [in the future], take away width from the batsman, try to bring the stumps in play as much as possible from that kind of four to five metre length – just bringing [batsmen] forward as much as possible.”

With frontline speedster Shannon Gabriel overlooked for the recent Test, Seales shared the new ball with veteran seamer Kemar Roach – a role he also performed during last year’s two-Test series against Pakistan in the Caribbean.

However, with just five Tests under his belt, Seales said critical improvements were still needed when bowling the new ball.

“For me, it is about being a little more consistent with the new ball. I think at times I bowl a bit too wide and a bit too short,” he said.

“So I think it’s just for me to get closer to the batsmen, try to make them play as much balls as possible because batsmen coming into bat against the new ball want to leave as much as possible. I think that is one thing I can take forward.”

West Indies held the upper hard in the opening Test at the halfway stage when they eked out a 64-run lead but England stormed to 349 for six before declaring just before lunch on the final day.

Set 286 for victory, West Indies recovered from 67 for four in the second over after tea, to bat out the final session safely.

“When we came into the game on [the final morning] we were actually thinking it might end up going to a draw seeing that England did not have the [200-run lead] coming in,” said Seales.

“They would have to chase the game and we got wickets which kind of held them back, and they had to bat a little longer than they wanted to.

“We had the mindset that we would bat for as long as possible and see how far we can take it and if it looks like we can get a win, we would go for the win.”

West Indies take on England again in the second Test starting at Kensington Oval Wednesday and Seales backed the home side to continue their enterprise in the three-Test series.

“[There are] more good Test matches to come. The team has been coming together very well,” he stressed.

“We’ve been training hard leading up to the camp, everyone has been putting in a good amount of work [and] the intensity has been high. It showed in this game and it’s just a matter of us going out and repeating it in the second game and the third Test match.”
(CMC)