West Indies captain Roston Chase believes that the side need to massively improve their batting following their heavy defeat to India in the first Test at Ahmedabad. The Men in Blue anhilated the visitors by an innings and 140 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the two-match series. The Windies were totally outclassed in both the batting and bowling departments. They got bundled out for scores of 162 and 146 in their first and second innings respectively. On the other hand, they were only able to dismiss five of India's batters before they declared their innings after putting 448 runs on the board.
Chase rues batters
After the match, Chase remarked that this wasn't a performance that the side were looking forward to and highlighted how important it is to post a big total in the first innings in Tests held in India.
"Obviously when you win the toss and bat and get bowled out for 162, it's going to be tough to come back from that and it's not the kind of performance we were looking forward to,” Chase said in the post-match presentation.
“We have to bat better, especially in India you have to put up a big first innings total on the board with the ball spinning and pitch deteriorating as the game goes on,” he added.
Chase identified batting as West Indies' 'main problem' and pointed out that they failed to even form a 50-run partnership during the first Test.
“Batting is the main problem. Batsmen needed to form partnerships, and we didn't even get a fifty-run stand and in cricket you need partnerships, whether you're batting or bowling,” Chase stated.
West Indies' poor form continues
This was West Indies' fourth consecutive defeat of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. This came after they had been defeated by Australia by 0-3 in their previous Test assignment. They will be hoping to record their first victory and get some points on the standings in the second and final Test of the series against India that is set to be played at Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi from October 10.