West Indies suffered a harsh 5-0 whitewash at the hands of Australia in their recent T20I series, but captain Shai Hope is already shifting his focus to the upcoming home series against Pakistan, which begins on July 31.
Reflecting on the disappointing campaign, Hope pointed out the team’s inconsistent batting as the key reason behind their struggles across the five games. “I just didn’t think we put together a proper batting display. We either started well and finished poorly or the other way around,” Hope admitted during the post-match presentation after the final T20I.
In the first three matches, West Indies got off to solid starts but failed to sustain the momentum. “As a batting group, we didn’t really give ourselves the best chance to put a big score on the board consistently. And that’s probably where we fell short. We’ve always been one step behind the eight-ball,” he added.
Hope also touched upon the impact of losing all five tosses in the series. With West Indies batting first in every match, he felt chasing might have been a more favourable option on Caribbean pitches.
“I think here in the Caribbean, we all know the stats show chasing is always the better thing to do… But it’s something that I can’t control. Unfortunately, I didn’t win any [tosses]… It’s just one of those things for us.”
Despite the winless result, the West Indies skipper found positives in the performance of his bowling unit. “I still must commend the guys for the effort that they showed in the back end, to give ourselves a chance to win the game,” Hope said, applauding the spirit shown by his bowlers even when defending low totals.
With the Australia series now behind them, Hope is determined to reset and look ahead. “We’ve got to put this one behind us, and look ahead for the Pakistan series, and see where we can get that combination and that success going,” he said.
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