WI vs IND | Need to bat 50 overs and build partnerships, says WI coach Phil Simmons

West Indies are gearing up to host India in a three-match ODI series starting July 22. They were handed a 0-3 mauling by the visiting Bangladesh team last week, making it their ninth series loss from the last 13.

Coach Phil Simmons has urged his batters to apply themselves in the middle and play out a full 50 overs, something they have not managed very frequently.

In their last 39 matches, they have managed to bat an entire quota of 50 overs six times, losing 23 ODIs while doing so.

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Ahead of the 1st ODI at Port-of-Spain, Simmons was quoted by cricket.com saying, "The main thing is how we bat our 50 overs…we have to bat 50 overs and put our innings together and partnerships together. Somebody has to be looking to score a hundred and hold the team together. Batting-wise that is it."

Pitches in the Caribbean have lately assisted spinners more than batters, which Simmons believes won't be the case at the Queen's Park Oval come Friday.

"The first difference is that the surface here (in Port-of-Spain) looks like some work has been put into it. It has been prepared and it looks good. That is all you can go to…they are true wickets that we're going to play these three games on and it looked really good the last couple of days we've been there, so [we will] wait and see how they play on Friday."

The former West Indies player has urged the board to provide better pitches if they want the nation to produce better batters for the future.

“You have to let them (ground-staff across the Caribbean) know (about the sub-standard pitches).

It's not nice, it's something that we've to work on throughout the Caribbean because the better wickets we get for our young players to grow up on, the better batsmen we get, the better fast bowlers and spinners we get. So, yes, it's a conversation we have all the time," he explained.

All three ODIs will take place at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad, where the Indian team completed their first training session, which took place indoors due to rain.

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