Phil Simmons urges West Indies to be patient with bat and ball

West Indies head coach Phil Simmons feels that patience will be key for West Indies in the series against India. The pitches in West Indies have slowed down considerably over the years and Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane also was quoted saying that “patience” will be the key to success.

“One of the words that we’re going to harp on a lot is how patient we are, because we tend to get bored of bowling [at] one place and doing well and not getting wickets, so we try something [else],” coach Simmons was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

He said that the batsmen need to spend a lot of time at the crease to get rewarded. “So we’re going to harp on this, trying to be patient and do the things that we’re doing well, continuously, so that we get the wickets and same thing with batting. You bat long and you stick around, you work hard and you’ll get the just reward at the end,” he said.

West Indies is a pretty inexperienced side, especially their bowling unit. Veteran pacer Jerome Taylor retired from the longest version of the game, just a few weeks ahead of the series. They are coming into the series with the bowling attack comprising of Carlos Brathwaite, Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder and Miguel Cummins.

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West Indies squad: Jason Holder (C), Kraigg Brathwaite (VC), Devendra Bishoo, Jermaine Blackwood, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Rajendra Chandrika, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Leon Johnson, Marlon Samuels

Indian squad: Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny, Shardul Thakur.