West Indies batsmen will come under the microscope later this month when they play New Zealand in three T20Is and two Tests.
This is according to assistant coach, Roddy Estwick. The former Barbadian pacer says that he believes the batting is going to be the biggest challenge as the bowlers have held their own in recent times.
“The challenge is going to be how well we bat. You would know for the last two or three years the bowlers have really held their own and the batting hasn’t come up to where we want it to be,” Estwick declared.
The 59-year-old contended that the New Zealand trio of fast bowlers, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult and Tim Southee will make their job no easier.
However, with what he saw in England, the Caribbean batting line up could get the job done.
“When you look at the New Zealand attack, you’ve got Boult, Southee [and] Wagner, you know you’ve got a top class, world-class attack so it’s all about when you’re in stay in,” he said
“I found in England that people got starts, people got 30s and 40s, some people got up to 60s, it’s all about carrying on and making sure when you carry on you get big scores,” he added.
Estwick pointed out that there has been a lack of big scores of late and it would be timely for some batsmen to execute.
“We got to go on and get big scores. We’ve got to go on and get big hundreds, we haven’t had hundreds now in quite a while so it’s very important we do that and once we can get a score we can become very competitive,” he reasoned.
The assistant coach was happy to see the return of Shimron Hetmyer and Darren Bravo, with his experience to the Test side, which he said would be boosted with some batsmen improving on some technical flaws from their experience in England.
Estwick echoed similar sentiments of chief selector, Roger Harper, stating that it was important that the openers perform well especially in the early periods.
He said, “Another thing that is going to be key in New Zealand as well is the openers have to give us starts because the ball will swing for a few overs in New Zealand so you got to make sure you ride that swing out. You cover that swing and you lay that platform for batters coming in so it’s going to be very important that John [Campbell] and Craig [Brathwaite] gets a good start.”
Both openers have had their struggles recently with Campbell scoring just one half century in his 18-innings Test career and Brathwaite averaging just 22 in the last three years.
West Indies will look to break their 25-year drought with a Test series win in New Zealand.
The first Test at Seddon Park, Hamilton will be from December 3-7 and the second Test billed for Basin Reserve, Wellington from December 11-15.
Test squad: Jason Holder (capt), Jermaine Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Chemar Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Keemo Paul, Kemar Roach
Test Reserves: Nkrumah Bonner, Joshua DaSilva, Preston McSween, Shayne Moseley, Raymon Reifer, Jayden Seales.
