MANCHESTER, England, CMC – Legendary former captain Clive Lloyd has questioned the balance of the West Indies squad, and has also urged the struggling squad to improve its situation awareness in order to turn around their form at the ongoing ICC World Cup.
West Indies have won just one game in six outings and lie eighth in the 10-nation standings on three points, with virtually no chance of finishing in the top four and reaching the semi-finals.
Lloyd said the lack of an off-spinning all-rounder like Roston Chase and more batsmen with the abilities of Shai Hope, had hampered the Windies performance.
“There’s also no spin option there when the rest of the sides have two or three. Now, they have to try to produce a spinner capable of playing in the ODI format and in Test matches,” Lloyd wrote in his ICC column.
“Roston Chase could play the same role as Moeen Ali does with England, and they also need someone who can hold the fort in the way Kane Williamson is doing for New Zealand.
“West Indies have a lot of good strikers of the ball, but they don’t have a player like Larry Gomes to stick around or Royston Chase who can also do that job.”
He continued: “Shai Hope is the type of player they need to produce more of. If he hadn’t made the 96 against Bangladesh, the West Indies wouldn’t have made runs.
“For all the criticism over his strike rate, if someone had stuck around with him against Bangladesh, Jason Holder’s side would have made 360 or above.”
West Indies have failed to spark during their World Cup campaign, despite boasting the likes of batsmen Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo and Hope, along with all-rounders Andre Russell and Jason Holder.
They dominated Pakistan in their opener but have since faltered badly, losing four of their next five matches. Frustratingly, they found themselves in winning positions against Australia, Bangladesh and New Zealand but squandered all three opportunities.
Lloyd said these missed chances pointed to their lack of awareness of what was required to win matches.
“They weren’t outplayed in at least three of their games that they lost (New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh), it’s just that they’re not putting the clinical finishing touches necessary to win games,” he pointed out. “Against New Zealand, they were well aware of the asking rate; all they had to do was knock it around. It wasn’t about playing big shots.
“It’s just reading the game properly. However, it was a great team effort when you think about it they can be proud of some of their performances.
“I just hope that they’ve learned from their mistakes and that they can rectify them because they are talented cricketers.”
However, Lloyd praised the quality of the talent in the West Indies side, but said both batsmen and bowlers needed to produce bigger performances more consistently.
“West Indies could be one of the best teams around – they have the talent. Had the West Indies batsmen turned some of those 50s, 60s and 70s, 80s into hundreds they would have been in a better position in the points standing,” he said.
“As for the bowlers with a better understanding of the English conditions and better homework done on the opposing players they could have performed much better.
“A team with Darren Bravo sat on the bench is a team with some talented cricketers.”
