LUCKNOW, India, CMC – Afghanistan’s cricket coach Phil Simmons has criticised the West Indies’ selectors for some of their decisions following the side’s 71-run loss to India in the second Twenty20 International on Tuesday.
Simmons, a former head coach of the regional side, said the team’s selectors seemed to not fully understand the format, as was evident in some of their choices.
He said one such decision was a move to promote Denesh Ramdin to the top-order, referring to it as an example of confusion in the lineup.
“It just sounds and looks like who’s selecting the team don’t understand what the T20 format needs and what is going on with this team. The roles of people are not being defined,” Simmons said.
“I think when you’re selecting a team, you have to make sure you have the right people for each phase of the T20 format. And if you don’t have the right people at the top of it, as India have shown with their three in Rohit (Sharma), Shikhar (Dhawan) and whenever Virat (Kohli) is there, they have that balance. They provide that stability for the rest of the team.”
Simmons said the inability of the selectors to find a solid opening pair was one of the Windies’ biggest issues.
He said once a steady opening pair was established, the tone would be set for batsmen such as Darren Bravo, as well as big-hitters Kieron Pollard and Nicolas Pooran to feel more confident in the wicket.
“With West Indies only having makeshift openers, you only create problems for yourself because when they fail early on, the middle-order doesn’t have any time to settle, and that’s where the struggle is coming from,” Simmons contended.
