While defending his aggressive approach to batting, West Indies vice-captain Jermaine Blackwood believes the team’s batsmen need to spend more time at the crease if they are to win the second Test against Pakistan set to bowl off at Sabina Park in Kingston on Friday.

Blackwood made scores of 22 and 55 in the first Test that the West Indies won by one wicket chasing a relatively modest total of 168 on a tricky pitch in Kingston. During a press conference on Wednesday, the Jamaican urged his teammates to apply themselves better in the final Test in the Betway series between the two teams.

“Once we go out there and play some hard cricket, I don’t see why we can’t beat Pakistan,” Blackwood told members of the media.

“In the last game you saw some bits of application, so once we can go out there and bat for longer periods I don’t see why we can’t win the series because the bowlers have always done an awesome job for us.”

Asked about the batsmen’s shot selection, which oftentimes sees them getting out to injudicious stroke play, Blackwood, who was dismissed in the first innings playing an attacking shot, agreed that better shot selection would help the batters produce better scores.

“I think once can get down to ball selection and select the right balls to score and which ones to leave and defend that will be much better for us,” he said while defending his own aggression.

He said his plan when he gets to the crease is to face 150 balls or more but in the second innings when he scored 55 from 78 balls he got out pushing at one outside his off stump.

“I am an aggressive batsman and I am always going to be aggressive but once I can curb it a little bit I don’t think my team will kill me for that because as you saw in the last game in the fourth innings on that pitch if I didn’t go out there and get that aggressive I think would be talking about something different today.”

He said, however, that the batting coach Monty Desai has been urging him to be patient, choose the right balls and stay in the moment, as he would love to see him score a double century.