KINGSTON: His inexperienced team might have been outclassed by India in the opening Test but West Indies chief coach Phil Simmons believes there is no need to be demoralised and urged his boys to work hard and make it even in the second match of the four-Test series.
“We know we didn’t play well and I think that is the good thing about it. If we had played well and we got beaten like that, then something would be wrong. So, we didn’t play well and we just have to make sure that we hit our straps when we are here,” Simmons was quoted as saying by the West Indian daily Jamaica Observer.
India recorded an emphatic win over West Indies in the Antigua Test where it defeated the host by an innings and 92 runs in the game that ended on the fourth day.
“You can’t be demoralised with one Test out of four because there are still three Test matches to go. You don’t look for excuses, you look for reasons why you do things wrong and the reason is that we didn’t bowl well and we didn’t bat well. So we have to do both of them well and we can’t ask for anything else,” said Simmons, who is heading the team since last year.
Both the teams have arrived here on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the second encounter of the four-Test series, starting on July 30.
West Indies has a young and inexperienced team but Simmons feels youthfulness of the squad can’t be an excuse and there is no dearth of talent in his side and they just need to work on their weakness.
“We can’t make any excuse about youthful team. If you are there in the team you need to bat and you need to bowl, so we just didn’t bowl well and we didn’t put on enough partnerships when we batted,” he said.
“So it is a case of having to make sure that we do everything that matters in this match to make the series even. This is what we have and we need to make use of what we have and perform.
“We have to work hard on what we didn’t do well. If we do things well then we can say it’s the best we have, but we have to do things well first. We need to play well and then we will see where we are as a unit,” said Simmons, who has scored 1002 runs from 26 Test matches. (AGENCIES)
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