WINDIES FRUSTRATING PATH TO CONSISTENCY

As the dust settles on the recently concluded One Day International series against Bangladesh, the West Indies must be experiencing mixed feelings. After easily defeating Bangladesh in the first two matches of the series, the team once again found themselves on the wrong end of the result of the third ODI in Chittagong.

Following the embarrassment of losing by eight wickets after being skittled out for 61 and after being 31 for 1, Darren Sammy insinuated that his players took their feet off the gas. I suppose it was the best excuse he could offer in that moment, but the West Indies’ woes go well beyond that. In the two previous ODIs played on relatively flat pitch in Mirpur, the West Indies played sound cricket. They bowled well, batted well and fielded well. The batting was perhaps the most refreshing because what fans saw was a team that played to a plan and executed very well.

The batting of Lendl Simmons and Marlon Samuels especially was very pleasing to watch. Both batsmen played straight, pretty much in the ‘V’ and for the most part, their shot selection was on point. In Chittagong the team was exposed once again as one that is susceptible to decent spin bowling. Batsman after batsman struggled to read the spin. They chose in many instances to play with their pads than with their bats, their feet remained glued to the crease and as a result perished in embarrassing fashion.

It seems that whenever the West Indies are faced with moments of crisis they quickly resort to old habits and seem almost incapable of making the necessary mental adjustments. Three batsmen were out bowled, three leg before and two caught and bowled. Almost all of them got out reaching for the ball, creating space between bat and pad, playing across the line in front of the stumps and mistiming the ball and hitting it straight back to the bowler. This has only served to frustrate fans across the region and the world, who are desperate for a West Indies revival of some sort.

This has been a problem that has persisted for years now and there seems to be no end in sight because it appears as if the batsmen have not worked out the solutions in their minds. No amount of coaching is going to solve this problem. This is going to be down to individual batsmen working on the flaws in their techniques in their own time. Instead of spending time in the nets facing familiar bowling, the batsmen need to spend time facing bowling that makes them uncomfortable and learning how to become comfortable. Cricket is a thinking man’s game. The bowler is always trying to figure out how to defeat the batsmen. West Indies’ batsmen need to figure out ways to make the bowlers they face uncomfortable.

Until that happens, debacles like we saw in Chittagong with continue to occur because unless the change comes from within each batsman the frustrations they suffer will remain and no one wants to experience that whether they are on the field, in the stands or watching from their living rooms thousands of miles away.