There is flamboyance in their batting style. A swag in their range hitting has long been associated with West Indian batsmen.
Flying across continents, they keep showcasing their entertaining brand of cricket round the year. With non-stop franchise cricket, the demand for batting all-rounders and big hitters keeps increasing and the West Indies has been a constant feeder in the supply chain.
Shimron Hetmyer and Nicholas Pooran are two latest hits to have emerged from the Carribean classic. Two time World Champions in the T20 format, West Indies are a different outfit when it comes to T20. However, in the 50-over format, their batsmen fail to showcase the same intent and often lack the knowledge of how to construct an innings.
‘Exciting times’
Building an innings is currently the biggest challenge the West Indies batsmen are facing and assistant coach Roddy Estwick admits it is an area of concern. The coach has a solution — follow India captain Virat Kohli.
“It’s exciting times for us when you look at somebody like Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran and Shai Hope. We got young batsmen more developing but you need to prepare well and work hard. Our batsmen [have] got to benchmark a player like Virat Kohli,” Estwick said on the sidelines of the team’s practice session on Friday.
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Estwick believes that it is Kohli’s discipline that makes the India captain successful and he wants his wards to learn from him. “You look up to him, somebody whom you will see in the gym working very hard and our players can learn from players like Kohli, then we have got a chance. Without hard work, there is no success and hard work is boring but it gives you great success. Once they learn and keep dealing with the process, then they have got a chance,” he reasoned.
Narrowing the gulf
West Indies gave India a serious fight in the three-match T20I series.
When asked if the Windies would come up with a similar performance in the ODI series, Estwick said, “We are happy with the form in the T20s and after the three T20s we played in the Caribbean (against Afghanistan), the gulf between the two teams were wide but we are happy that we have narrowed the gap and hope we can do the same thing in the 50 overs.”
The strip at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium is bound to help spinners and West Indies can look up to Hayden Walt and Roston Chase to dish out quality spin. However, it will be challenging for the West Indies batsmen to face the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja.
Talking about the spin-bowling preparations, Estwick said, “It's a learning curve for the young spinners (Hayden Walsh and Roston Chase). It’s a learning curve against the best and it’s good that we can play against a quality side like India.”
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