West Indies’ performance during last month’s Test series win over England has signalled huge strides by the Caribbean side, head coach Phil Simmons has said.
West Indies entered the three-Test series as underdogs but after grinding out draws in the opening matches in Antigua and Barbados, stunned England by 10 wickets well within four days in the third Test in Grenada.
Pointing to the batting especially, Simmons said a maturity had emerged among that group, reflected in their situation awareness throughout the series.
“I think they have made a huge [amount of] progress,” Simmons noted.
“I think for us to be able to understand how to bat on last days to save Test matches and also to be able to understand how we needed to bat in a situation … for two days – something we haven’t done for a while.
“I think that is progress in itself and to me, that was a big pleasure to sit down and watch our batsmen just grind out a session and don’t lose any wickets and still score 80 runs and little things like that.
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“I think there was a lot of progress being made during that series.”
Captain Kraigg Brathwaite, adjudged Man-of-the-Series, was the leading scorer on either side with 341 runs at an average of 88.
He was one of four home side batsmen with hundreds, vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner and wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva the others to reach triple figures.
The series win followed on the heels of the white-ball side’s 3-2 triumph also over England in a five-match Twenty20 series last January in Barbados.
West Indies have continued to excel in the shortest format more so than Tests and Simmons said the presence of franchise leagues had contributed to this pace of development.
“The progression will always be different, from the point of view of the amount of cricket that’s played,” he explained.
“I think because there is a lot of learning being done up here as in the international level, the white ballplayers have more playing time. Long ago we used to have playing time in the Counties and in the Leagues so our red ball team improved a lot quicker.
“Now, there’s a lot more of those white-ball leagues so the ability to do things in white-ball cricket makes them improve a lot quicker than the amount of red ball [cricket being played].
“For two years [due to COVID-19] we didn’t have any red-ball cricket [in the region] except internationals so definitely in that way, the white ball [teams] will improve quicker.”
West Indies are currently ranked eighth in Tests, ninth in One-Day Internationals and seventh in T20 Internationals.
(CMC)
