By Neil Kumar
A CRICKET coach is now criticising pitches in the Caribbean for his failure. The West Indies team failed miserably against the Bangladesh touring team in the One-Day International games and as the West Indies team comes up against India, Coach Simmons is singing to keep his job.

After the West Indies team was humiliated by Bangladesh, expectations were sky high that the better players who are not in the team would have been selected to play against the star-studded Indian cricket team.
Shimron Hetmyer and Chanderpaul Hemraj are two outstanding players in all forms of cricket and the selectors are so insular that they are not considering these players to play for the West Indies team.

The haters are complaining that Hetmyer is not physically fit. However, it cannot be denied that he is the best fielder in the world when he is on the boundary. Hetmyer is one of the fastest in the outfield and the safest catcher when fielding. He was a successful captain as he won the World under-19 World Cup title for the West Indies.

The Guyana Cricket Board and our journalist must make consistent calls for Hetmyer’s inclusion in the West Indies team. Hetmyer is a better batsman than any of the players in the present team. As for Hemraj, he is a consistent opening batsman. Hemraj is a utility player, he is a useful spinner and an outstanding fielder.

India is playing a young team with several of their world-class players resting. However, the likes of the experienced stand-in Skipper, Shikhar Dhawan and players like Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and the master all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are capable of making enough runs to win matches.

India’s bowling will be heavily strengthened with Jadega, Yuzvendra Chahal along with the quick bowlers Mohamed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel.
India will start as hot favourites to win, as the West Indies did not win a series against India in almost 20 years. West Indies lost miserably against Bangladesh as they were whitewashed. With the low morale, the West Indies will have to select the best players in the Caribbean and get back to winning ways.

As the ODI series gets on the way in Port of Spain, all eyes will be on the West Indies team. The criticism against the Guyana pitch at Providence was uncalled for. Our batsmen will have a herculean task to score runs so as to give the bowlers a chance to win.