Simmons says team’s performance was under par
—said the team failed to show character, heart
Following a winless One Day International run in the threematch series against Bangladesh, West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons, says his team will need to improve on everything ahead of the next series.
During the post-match interview Simmons said, “We need to improve on everything, because we’ve lost three games. You definitely need to improve on everything in every area especially with the runs we put on the board and it’s something we have to work on from now until the next series which is in March.”
Looking at the ODI Championships, Simmons reasoned, “We’ve lost the first series, there is a lot of other series to play, we just need to make sure when we play the other series we get points and from here now the only way we can go is up.”
Simmons noted, “I think our performance was under par. We didn’t bat as well as we can do, bowling wasn’t that bad to limit them under 300 on this wicket is good but our batting has been poor throughout the series.”
In the batting department, Simmons said that he believed that the team needed to play spin better. He also said that the rotation of the strike and the ability to score boundaries needed work.
The head coach explained that captain, Jason Mohammed did not do as well as he would have liked with the bat but did well as a leader.
According to Simmons, “I think he [Mohammed] has done well. I think he has commanded things on the field well. Unfortunately, he didn’t get the amount of runs he would have wanted to get but I think as a captain and on the field he has definitely
done well.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan and off-spinner, Mehidy Miraz accounted for 46 percent of the wickets while the five pacers took 54 percent.
Consequently, no West Indian batsman managed to register a half century. In fact only three batsmen had over 50 runs combined in the series.
“Every time you have low scores like that there is not
enough character shown. There is not enough heart shown. There is not enough determination. All the words you can use. It’s all about putting things out there and making sure that things happen the way you want them to happen and that has not been done,” he said.
Simmons credited the work of newbie, Akeal Hosein, who was the most successful bowler, picking
up four wickets with his leftarm spin.
“He’s [Hosein] definitely a man for the future.
To make your debut and then have a three-for on your debut and have the kind of respect that you’ve gained and shown in the last two games, it shows you are improving and shows you are doing something right,” Simmons said.