Lavish praise for Deandra Dottin

LAUDERHILL, Florida – West Indies head coach Phil Simmons said the main lesson for his side coming out of their limited-overs series against India is learning to value their wicket more.

West Indies were swept in their series of three One-day Internationals against the Indians, and crumbled to a 1-4 loss against the same opponents in a series of five
Twenty20 Internationals that ended last Saturday and Sunday with heavy defeats at the Central Broward Regional Park in this American city.

“We give away our wickets too cheaply,” Simmons said. “We have been there. We have been up with the run rate, but we keep losing too many wickets, and that’s the main lesson we can learn from this series.

“The main thing is that we have to bat in a format … but we need to learn to stop losing wickets. If we learn to stop losing wickets, we will make big totals because we have all the players.”

Simmons added: “(Shimron) Hetmyer has shown he is back, we have Rovman (Powell), we have (Nicholas) Pooran, but nobody has been consistent throughout the series, and that’s what we need now.

“We need consistency, but understanding the situation in each game, and knowing how we play that moment is important.”

Simmons said his side showed “glimpses” of what they were capable against the No. 1 side in the world, but they never put it altogether to push the visitors.

“It’s always going to be difficult playing against India because they are the best T20I team in the world, man for man,” he said.

“But I think we showed in glimpses that we are capable of competing with them, sometimes with the ball, sometimes with the bat…

“The lesson we must take from this series is that we have to put everything together on the day to beat the top teams.”

Simmons comments came after the fifth and final T20I in which West Indies failed to bat the maximum 20 overs, were bowled out for exactly 100, and lost by 88 runs.

They start a series of three T20Is against New Zealand on Wednesday at Sabina Park in Jamaica during which Simmons said he and the selection panel, led by former West Indies opener, Desmond Haynes will hope to firmly identify a core of players to form the squad for the ICC T20I World Cup later this year in Australia.

“It’s difficult, but we have three more matches, and we will sit down after that and make decisions about who fits into the way we want to play,” Simmons said.

“I think the three matches will be important for a lot of players and some players will be rested, but in general after that we will definitely have to make a decision.”

West Indies have won only six of their 16 T20Is this year, and have won only three of their 16 T20Is against New Zealand.

(CMC)