West Indies coach Phil Simmons FILE - West Indies coach Phil Simmons. Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS
Dubai – West Indies coach Phil Simmons is backing his team to bounce back in their crunch T20 World Cup clash against the Proteas on Tuesday.
The defending champions were rolled for a record low 55 in their opener against England. But instead of retreating, the former Windies all-rounder has backed his charges to hit back with a vengeance.
"For me, Saturday was just about bad shot selection," Simmons said. "The bowling wasn't, as we would say, extraordinary. All the guys have played against these guys [England] before, so I just put it down to bad shot selection," Simmons said.
"Well, the style in which we play our cricket has always been in the style in which we play our cricket. But we also got to assess the situation at the time and play according to the situation. So, there's enough experience in the team for that; any two batsmen in there at the same time would have that experience to assess the situation and play accordingly.
"We will continue to be in our aggressive state, but our shot-selection and assessment of the situation must be a lot better."
The Windies have also done their homework on being better against spin, particularly the Proteas World No 1 T20 bowler Tabraiz Shamsi.
The left-arm wrist spinner tied the Windies batters into knots in the Caribbean, but Simmons believes they are better prepared now.
"Yeah, we've been looking back at that [T20I series in the West Indies] and seeing how in the games so far here [in the UAE] how people have played and won but also about how batsmen are going to find a way to score off him and without him being such of a threat," he said.
IOL Sport
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