West Indies skipper stays positive as they shift attention to Pakistan

Times of Oman

a day ago

Basseterre: After the West Indies' terrible 5-0 T20I series defeat to Australia, skipper Shai Hope has now shifted focus to the upcoming challenge against Pakistan, according to the official website of the ICC.
Shai Hope pointed to his side's lack of consistency as the key factor behind the West Indies' series defeat.
The skipper expressed disappointment over the batting unit's inability to put together a complete performance, which allowed Australia to comfortably chase down targets in each game.
"I just didn't think we put together a proper batting display. We either started well and finished poorly or the other way around," he said, as quoted from the official website of ICC.
"When you're playing against quality opposition like Australia, you've got to put things together for a more complete game," he noted.
The first three matches of the series were marked by West Indies' batters failing to capitalise on strong starts.
In the opener, they were cruising at 123 for 1 in the 13th over but ended up with just 189. The second game followed a similar pattern--after a promising 63 for 0 start, they could only post 172.
In the third match, a 125-run opening stand went in vain as the middle order failed to fire on a batting-friendly pitch. While in the last two games, West Indies struggled with poor starts that left too much to do for the middle order.
"As a batting group, we didn't really give ourselves the best chance to put a big score on the board consistently. And that's probably where we fell short. We've always been one step behind the eight ball," he said.
A significant aspect of this series was that the West Indies consistently set the target, which goes against the common belief that chasing is usually the easier option in the Caribbean.
"I think here in the Caribbean, we all know the stats show chasing is always the better thing to do," Hope said.
"Whether it's the dew factor or wind factor, you always have that scoreboard in front of you, so you have an idea of how to go about the chase. But it's something that I can't control. Unfortunately, I didn't win any (tosses)... It's just one of those things for us," he added.
The skipper, however, praised his bowling unit for showing great fight in what was a challenging series. He expressed confidence that the upcoming series against Pakistan, starting July 31, would be a valuable opportunity for the team to build on the lessons learnt from the Australia series.
"I think that we're a little bit clearer in the bowling unit," said Shai Hope.
"I still must commend the guys for the effort that they showed in the back end to give ourselves a chance to win the game. But once you don't have that many runs on the board, then you have got to hope everything goes perfectly in the field. It just didn't happen for us," he noted.
"We certainly executed a lot better than we did in the first few games. We've got to put this one behind us and look ahead for the Pakistan series and see where we can get that combination and that success going," he added. (