ENG vs WI 2017: Stuart Law Wants the Side to Settle Quickly Before World Cup Qualifiers
Sep 22, 2017 at 12:36 PM
The Story
Windies have dragged to the 9th position in the ODI ranking after tasting defeat at the hands of hosts England in the 1st ODI at Manchester. The loss now means that they cannot automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
The tourists hardly showed any commitment and will now pay the price for it by entering the perilous qualifying tournament next year featuring other nations where only top two qualify and complete the ten team lot for the mega event in England.
Stuart Law hopes of Better Performances
The times are uninspiring for Windies at the moment. The optimistic fans kept their belief alive, but the team only managed to sink deeper into misery. Windies coach Stuart Law has now urged his boys to perform better in the upcoming three ODIs against England, and three against New Zealand later this year to ensure they enter the right frame of mind before taking part in the qualifiers.
“Our plan is to go to Zimbabwe next year with a settled team, a team where everyone knows their roles and what they want to achieve,” Law said.
“It’s a balancing act because what some players bring is extraordinary and you don’t want to nullify that effect. We’ve still got some selectorial conversations to have, to understand if we have the best players to take this team forward.
“There’s plenty of A-team cricket in the Caribbean – Sri Lanka are there, and England are coming next year, so there are opportunities – but I’d like to go to New Zealand with a team which is pretty settled before the qualifiers,” the coach added.
Windies Welcome Back Their Strongmen
Windies side has received a couple of major boost in lately with the return of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels. In future, the side may also welcome Sunil Narine and Andre Russell which would add more muscle to the squad which already boasts of promising, but inexperienced names.
Narine, who earned the Man of the Match award in the one-off T20I, has stated that he needs to play domestic one-dayers before returning to the ODIs while Russell, who is serving a one-year ban for missing three drug tests in a 12-month period, will be back in the set after January 31 next year.
It obviously means Windies will be fielding a much stronger team in the qualifiers.
“This group I feel has a lot of good, that’s why they are here,” he added. “We are just making sure they understand how they want to play, they are caught between T20 and Test cricket a little at the moment and need to find a tempo for this format,” concluded Law.