West Indies women’s head coach Shane Deitz believes that while technical skills and strokeplay are important, a degree of aggression is essential to compete with the best in the world, especially in limited-overs cricket.

Deitz made his stance clear during a virtual media briefing on Monday, pushing back against the notion that West Indies' batting is simply about “swinging from the hip.” He stressed that scoring quickly is key to international success.

“Players have to be scoring over a 100 strike rate to succeed at the international level. If you don’t have the skill set to hit fours... if you can’t score over 100 strike rate, you’re not going to have any success in international cricket,” Deitz asserted.

Shane Deitz with captain Hayley Matthews.

In fact, he pointed out that developing those skills and giving players the opportunity to score is a priority for his team.

“It’s not just surviving and looking nice, hitting cover drives along the ground; you’ve got to be able to score in all parts of the ground. My job is to get players good enough to win the World Cup, not just to be number six in the world like we have been for years now. We want to be in the top two, three in the world. To do that, we have to do things differently and be able to score fast, put pressure on the bowlers,” Deitz declared

“If we are going to beat teams like Australia, England, and India, we have to take risks. We can’t just go out and be conservative. So players have been challenged, particularly at the regional level, to be able to do that, but that takes time,” he added.

Deitz also defended his record since being appointed in 2023, as he pointed to the team’s recent progress.

“Since I’ve taken over, we’ve had a bit of success,” he stated.

Qiana Joseph.

“We reached the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup, beating England along the way. In the past 12 months, we’ve recorded T20 wins against India, Australia, and England—the first time we’ve beaten England in about 14 or 15 years,” he noted.

Deitz also stood firm on his approach when challenged about selection decisions.

“There aren’t many players standing out. We assess a lot behind the scenes that people don’t get to see,” Deitz shared as he highlighted players such as Qiana Joseph, who have thrived under his guidance.

“If you look at Qiana Joseph, she was primarily a bowler who batted a little, but she has come through as one of the leading batters in the world—probably the most in-form batter in T20 cricket,” he argued.

That said, the Australian insisted that the team’s approach is not about reckless hitting but about developing the ability to score freely.

Chinelle Henry.

“There are a few things me and my team are doing really well. If you look at our philosophy, it’s not just swinging from the hip; that’s incorrect information; hitting the ball hard to enable players to score more freely is more to the point,” Deitz reasoned.

“If you look at our stats before I started, in T20 cricket we averaged 12 boundaries per game with an average score of 114. Since I’ve taken over, we’ve scored over 200 twice—the two highest scores in our history. So I think there are some positives.

“Look at Chinelle Henry in the WPL; she’s embracing her batting, and that’s what we’ve been encouraging her about the way to bat. Some players have really excelled,” he ended.