Phil Simmons says West Indies must address their batting frailties in a three-match one-day international series against India.
The Windies were consigned to a 3-0 whitewash at the hands of Bangladesh on home soil and face a huge challenge when they face India.
Nicholas Pooran has endured a poor start to his tenure as captain and India are strong favourites to win a series that starts at Queen's Park Oval on Friday.
The highest total West Indies posted against the Tigers was only 178 and they have failed to bat out the full 50 overs time and again.
Head coach Simmons is demanding more application at the crease ahead of the series in Port of Spain.
"We have players quite capable of batting for long periods, but we need to get it together and hold strong," Simmons said.
"Players like [Shai] Hope and [Kyle] Mayers are Test batsmen, so they have the temperament to bat right through the innings."
He added: "The main thing is how we bat our 50 overs…we have to bat 50 overs and put our innings together and partnerships together.
"Somebody has to be looking to score a hundred and hold the team together. Batting-wise that is it."
Shikhar Dhawan captains the tourists as Rohit Sharma is rested along with the struggling Virat Kohli and paceman Jasprit Bumrah for a series that does not fall under the banner of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League.
India have won 10 of their past 11 ODIs versus the Windies, with the only loss coming in Chennai back in December 2019.
Holder return boosts Windies
Good news has been in short supply for West Indies, but the return of all-rounder Jason Holder can give them a lift.
The former skipper was given a break for the Bangladesh series and the Windies will be hoping he is fresh and ready to fire on his return.
Holder needs another four wickets to become the seventh West Indies bowler to take 150 ODI wickets.
India can show strength in depth
Dhawan is set to lead a young side as India look to show their strength in depth with the World Cup to come on home soil next year.
Deepak Hooda and Arshdeep Singh are among the players who will be looking to make their mark in the Caribbean.
Ishan Kishan will also hope to get another chance at the top of the order.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons expects a much better showing from the team’s batsmen ahead of the upcoming series against India.
The Windies line-up struggled mightily against Bangladesh, albeit in difficult circumstances for batting in the most recent One Day International series. In three matches the team, batting first on each occasion, managed just a total of 435.
The team’s captain Nicholas Pooran was the team’s scorer with 91 runs but scored 73 in the final game when the series was already decided. Shamarh Brooks was the next best and he totalled 42 over the three matches. Despite facing superior opposition, India, in another series beginning on Friday, Simmons does not expect such a brutal showing with the bat.
“You expect a better batting performance. You don’t really want to make excuses and in the last game we showed what we should have shown in the first two games, on what were bad cricket wickets on whole but we expect differently,” Simmons told members of the media on Wednesday.
“We’ve had two days of practice, we practiced yesterday and a really good session today, something that we did not get between Dominica and Guyana because of the rain that stopped us from practicing. From the sessions I have seen so far, the guys seem to be switched on again.”
West Indies batsman Lendl Simmons has retired from international cricket, according to an Instagram post from his sports agency 124notout on Monday.
The post further said that Simmons had written a letter to Cricket West Indies last Friday informing them about his decision to become a free agent and pursue opportunities on the franchise circuit.
Simmons' international career spanned 16 years. He represented West Indies in eight Tests, 68 ODIs and 68 T20Is, scoring 3763 runs across all formats. He made his ODI debut against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 2006. His T20I debut came a year later against England at The Oval and he made his Test debut in 2009 against England in Port-of-Spain.
Simmons has also enjoyed a stellar career in franchise cricket representing several teams like Mumbai Indians, Trinbago Knight Riders, Karachi Kings and Sylhet Sunrisers.
He is the leading run-scorer in CPL history with 2629 runs from 91 innings including 20 half-centuries.
He also helped the Mumbai Indians to two IPL titles in 2015 and 2017, scoring a total of 1079 runs from 29 innings during his time with the franchise.
Simmons played a key role in West Indies' triumph during the 2016 T20 World Cup, blasting a 51-ball 82 in the semi-final against hosts India. In total, Simmons scored 1527 runs in T20Is at a strike rate of 120.80, with nine half-centuries.
He last represented West Indies during the 2021 T20 World Cup.
All-rounder and former captain Jason Holder has been named among a 13-player squad to face India in the three-match CG United ODI Series in Trinidad. Holder missed the just-concluded series against Bangladesh to help manage his workload as one of the West Indies' all-format players.
West Indies and India will compete for the CG United trophy with the matches to be played on Friday, July 22, Sunday, July 24, and Wednesday, July 27, at the historic Queen’s Park Oval. All matches start at 9:30 am (8:30 am Jamaica Time/7 pm India time).
Lead Selector, The Most Hon. Dr Desmond Haynes said he is glad to have Holder back playing again.
“As we all know, Jason is one of the leading all-round cricketers in the world and we’re happy to have him back in the team. He will be refreshed, re-energized and ready to go and we can expect to see his brilliance on the field and meaningful contributions off the field as well,” Dr Haynes said.
“We had a very challenging three matches against Bangladesh in Guyana so we will be looking to rebound when we face India in the conditions in Trinidad. We have seen some growth among some players, but overall we need to regroup and play better against the Indians.”
The full squad: Nicholas Pooran (Captain), Shai Hope (Vice Captain), Shamarh Brooks, Keacy Carty, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, Gudakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Jayden Seales.
Reserves: Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh Jr.
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran stroked a responsible half-century and spinner Gudakesh Motie claimed a four-for but still came up short in a 4-wicket loss to Bangladesh on Saturday.
The result saw the Asian team complete a 3-0 series whitewash of the Windies and continue their stranglehold over the Caribbean team in the ODI format, which amounts to an 11th straight win. Unlike the two previous fixtures, however, the third and final match proved a more competitive affair.
The Windies were off to another difficult start after losing Brandon King, Shai Hope, and Shamarh Brooks in the first 6 overs and with only 16 runs on the board. Pooran, however, steadied the ship alongside Keacy Carty, and the two combined to put on 67 for the fourth wicket.
The partnership was, however, ended when Carty was caught at mid-on, on 33, after a loose shot failed to clear Tamim at mid-on.
Pooran then partnered with Rovman Powell to put on another 34, but Powell was clean bowled by Taijul Islam, leaving the team on 117 for 5. The Windies captain struggled to find partners to occupy the crease and his outstanding innings came to an end on 73, after also being bowled by Islam.
Romario Shepherd added a useful 19 from 22 and the Windies ended with their highest score of the series on 178.
Islam ended with the best figures for Bangladesh after taking five for 28.
In pursuit, Bangladesh got off to a strong start as Liton Das had an even 50, while captain Tamim Iqbal played his part with 34. The team found themselves in trouble mid-innings after some rash strokes left them struggling at 5-116, before an unbeaten 32 from wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan in partnership with Mehidy Hasan saw them home. Motie had career-best figures for the Windies after taking 4 for 23.
West Indies bowling coach Roddy Estwick insists the team must find a way to cope with Bangladesh spinners after being comprehensively outplayed over two One Day Internationals thus far.
After losing the toss and being sent to bat on both occasions, the West Indies failed to reach 150 in any of the two encounters. In the first, the Windies were dismissed for 149 in 41 overs, a match they lost by 6 wickets, and 108 in the second, a lopsided 9-wicket loss.
Similar to the previous encounters between the teams, the Bangladeshi spinners had the West Indies batsmen beaten all ends up. In the second ODI Nasum Ahmed and Mehidy Hasan Miraz combined for 7 wickets. Mehidy finished with 4 for 29.
“Losing the toss should not necessarily mean that you are going to lose the game. We’ve got to find a way to counteract these spinners and play the spin a lot better,” Estwick said.
“They’ve been causing us a lot of problems but it’s not for a lack of trying, the boys are trying and that’s going to be very important for us going forward,” he added.
“We still have one more game to go and we continue to learn and hope that we can take some lessons away from it.”
Bangladesh has beaten the West Indies in the last 10 straight ODI matches. The teams will play the third and final match of the series on Saturday.
India stars Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested for the upcoming five-match T20I series against West Indies.
Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who has the most wickets for India in the shortest format (79), is another key figure rested for the series, which starts on July 29 in Trinidad.
Kohli missed the opening ODI against England due to an apparent groin strain, with reports suggesting he had requested to be left out of the following limited-overs tour against the West Indies.
The 33-year-old has not scored a century in any format of cricket since November 2019, last doing so when he scored 136 in a Test against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, leading to questions over his form.
Kohli is thought to still be in India's plans for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia, though Rohit Sharma's side will do without the batter for the next series after naming their 18-man squad.
Kuldeep Yadav and KL Rahul are both set to return from injuries, subject to fitness, with Ravichandran Ashwin joining a spin department that already includes Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant were rested for the ODI series against West Indies, which precedes the T20I clashes, but are in the squad for the fixtures in the shortest format.
Meanwhile, Arshdeep Singh was preferred ahead of quick Umran Malik in the pace bowling department, which includes Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel.
India T20I squad in full: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
*Inclusion of KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness.
Bangladesh condemned the West Indies to a second consecutive defeat, this time by nine wickets, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in their three-match ODI series at Providence in Guyana on Wednesday.
West Indies batsman Shai Hopes insists the team must find ways to score more efficiently if they are to find any success against Bangladesh in the ongoing series.
The regional team’s difficult run of form in One Day Internationals continued earlier this week, after losing to Bangladesh by six wickets in the rain-affected first match. Batting first, the Windes could only manage 149 runs in their 41 overs at the crease, a total that was easily surpassed by the visitors.
Despite showing positive signs in the other formats, the West Indies continue to struggle to find any sort of consistency or tempo in ODI cricket.
“We need to find more ways to score, whether that’s picking up more singles or finding more boundary options,” Hope said in assessing the team’s issues from the first ODI.
“It’s important for us to learn that so we can find more ways to put the bowlers under pressure so that when we do get those bad balls we can find some more runs for the bowler to bowl at,” he added.
The West Indies will meet Bangladesh in the second ODI at Providence Stadium in Guyana, on Wednesday.
Bangladesh secured a comfortable six-wicket win over the West Indies at Providence in Guyana on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in their three-match One-Day International series.
The win was Bangladesh’s first win on their tour having lost both the Test and T20 International series 2-0.
The win also means that Bangladesh have now won their last six ODIs against the hosts, a fact that West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran says the team is well aware of.
“We know Bangladesh has had us in the last couple series but that’s ok. I feel like we’re still going to win this series. We’re 1-0 down but we can come again on Wednesday with better plans and punch back,” said Pooran in a post-match interview.
The skipper lamented the team’s lack of runs on the board in the 41 overs-per-side game, being restricted to a subpar 149-9.
“We definitely didn’t have enough runs on the board. If we had got close to 175 or 200 on that wicket, it’d be interesting to see how the game would have turned out. We also could’ve bowled a bit better in the powerplay. It’s going to be a challenge for us but we just need to keep figuring out ways to win cricket games, especially in the ODI format,” Pooran said.
On the other hand, “Fantastic,” was how Pooran described debutant Gudakesh Motie’s performance with the ball.
Motie took his first international wicket on the way to a tidy 1-18 off nine overs.
“He got his opportunity in front of his home crowd and delivered. Unfortunately, he was on the losing side but the way he bowled nine overs for 18 runs is fabulous and we’re expecting him to continue to bowl like this, not just in this series but in the future as well,” he added.
The 27-year-old Motie, who also made his Test debut on this tour, got his chance in the ODI format on the back of a stellar campaign in the 2021 Super 50 Cup which saw him finish as the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets in seven matches as Guyana got all the way to the final, losing to Trinidad & Tobago.
After being shut out in the respective Test and T20 series, Bangladesh struck back on Sunday to defeat the West Indies by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead in their three-match ODI series at Providence in Guyana.
In the match reduced to 41 overs because of a wet outfield, Bangladesh won the toss and sent the West Indies in to bat. The home side was in early trouble losing Shai Hope first ball, bowled by an inswinger from Mustafizur Rahman for nought.
On a pitch of uneven bounce and taking spin, the West Indies struggled to rotate the strike. They lost Kyle Mayers for 10 in the 12th over when the score was on 32. It would get a lot worse eight overs later when after limping to 55-2, they lost Brandon King and Shamarh Brooks off consecutive deliveries of the 21st over bowled by Shoriful Islam for eight and 33, respectively.
The dismissals brought together Captain Nicholas Pooran (18) and Vice-Captain Rovman Powell (9), who together put on 20 for the fifth wicket. Mehidy Hasan Miraz removed both in quick succession to have the West Indies tottering on 91-6.
Shoriful picked up his third and fourth wickets with the dismissals of Romario Shepherd for 15 and Gudakesh Motie for 7, which along with the run out of Akeal Hosein for 3, saw the West Indies stumble to 110-9 in over 35.
Jayden Seales and Anderson Phillip, who were unbeaten on 16 and 21, respectively put on 39 for the last wicket to take the West Indies to 149-9.
Shoriful returned figures of 4-34 while Mehidy took 3-36.
Needing 150 for their first victory of the series, Bangladesh lost the wickets of Liton Das for 1 with the score at 9 and Tamim Iqbal for 33 when the score was 49 but still raced to 77-2 after 13 overs.
The tourists would lose the wickets of Najmul Hossain Shanto for 37 and Afif Hossain for nine as Bangladesh closed in on the victory but Mahmudullah 41 not out and Nurul Hasan (20) ensured that there would be no further jitters as they eased to 151-4 with 55 balls to spare.
Motie, who dismissed Shanto for the first wicket of his international career, bowled well for figures of 1-18 from nine overs while Pooran took 1-39 from seven. Akeal Hosein took 1-43.
West Indies One Day International captain Nicholas Pooran believes the team is still searching for the right approach to be able to reap success in the format.
Despite some promising signs in both the Test and T20 versions of the sport, the team Windies have continued to accumulate indifferent results in 50-over cricket. Currently ranked at 9th in the world, the team has won just 4 of the last 10 games and won only one against a team in the top 10.
In their last encounter, the team struggled to come to grips with Pakistan in a 3-0 loss after a convincing win against the Netherlands prior to that. Recently appointed Pooran, however, believes the team is still trying to find its legs.
“There are a lot of new guys on the team and we need to learn to play together as a group. You just have to be patient, the ODI format is between the Test and the T20, and the mindset is changing. We just need to get the right mindset, the right template, and just stick with it for a bit, I am really looking forward to the Bangladesh game,” Pooran said.
The West Indies will play Bangladesh in a three-match ODI series, beginning in Guyana tomorrow.
Cricket West Indies’ (CWI) Senior Men’s Selection Panel has named Romario Shepherd in the 13-member squad to face Bangladesh in the three-match CG United One-Day International (ODI) Series.
Shepherd was originally a reserve but will now replace Keemo Paul, who tested positive for COVID-19 and is therefore unavailable. Odean Smith has been added as the reserve.
Shepherd bowled well in the recent T20 International (T20I) Series, where he was the leading wicket-taker with 6 wickets (average 11.33; economy 7.5) including a career-best 3-21 in the first T20I at Windsor Park, Dominica.
He will now have the opportunity, subject to selection, to play more games in front of his home crowd at the Guyana National Stadium.
FULL SQUAD
Nicholas Pooran (Captain)
Shai Hope (Vice Captain)
Shamarh Brooks
Kaecy Carty
Akeal Hosein
Alzarri Joseph
Brandon King
Kyle Mayers
Gudakesh Motie
Anderson Phillip
Rovman Powell
Jayden Seales
Romario Shepherd
Reserve: Odean Smith
Player of the Match Nicholas Pooran and Kyle Mayers scored half-centuries as the West Indies defeated Bangladesh by five wickets to take their three-match T20 series 2-0 on Thursday.
man of the Match Rovman Powell scored a quick-fire unbeaten half-century as the West Indies sealed a 35–run victory in the second T20 International against Bangladesh and take a 1-0 lead in their three-match series in Dominica on Sunday.
Chasing 194 for victory, Bangladesh scored 158-6 off their 20 overs.
Shakib al Hasan’s unbeaten 68 took the tourists close but the West Indies bowlers were always on top, notwithstanding a few big overs for Bangladesh near the end.
Romario Shepherd took 2-38 and Obed McCoy, who took wickets with the first two balls he bowled in the match, returned figures of 2-37, 20 of them conceded in the 19th over of the match.
Shakib, who during the match, became the only batsman to score 2000 runs and take more than 100 wickets in T20 history, featured in partnerships of 53 with Afif Hossain who scored 34 from 27 balls. The latter was dismissed as the visitors slumped to 78-4 in the 11th over.
Shakib and Mossadek Hossain added another 53 for the sixth wicket but with the required run rate steadily climbing, Bangladesh’s chances of victory seemed remote.
The West Indies won the toss and chose to bat, scoring 193-5 from their 50 overs.
Brandon King scored 50 as the West Indies sought to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series after the first match on Saturday ended in a no-result because of rain.
After losing Shamarh Brooks for a duck and Kyle Mayers for 17, King and Captain Nicholas Pooran shared in a third-wicket stand of 74.
Pooran smashed three fours and a six in his 30-ball 34 before he was trapped lbw by Mossadek Hossain. His departure saw the arrival of his vice-captain, who after a tentative start exploded against the Bangladesh attack.
Powell and King shared in a 63-run fourth-wicket partnership from just 29 balls when King whose 50 came up off 36 balls with six fours and a six, got out caught by Shakib Al Hasan trying to hit Shoriful Islam over the boundary.
Powell, meantime, showed little mercy racing to 50 from 20 balls. Twenty-three of those runs came in the 16 over when he hit Shakib for three sixes and a four. He remained unbeaten on 61 from just 28 balls. He hit two fours and six sixes, the last of which came from the last ball of the innings when he clubbed Shoriful over the deep midwicket boundary.
Romario Shepherd made three and was replaced by Odean Smith, who hit the third ball of the final over to end unbeaten on 11 from just four balls.
Shoriful returned figures of 2-40 while there was a wicket each for Shakib (1-38), Mahedi Hasan (1-31) and Mossadek (1-0).
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