West Indies batters need a change of mindset

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I think it would help if someone ‘touches the shoulder’ of the current West Indies’ (WI) T20 batters and tell them politely that it is highly improbable that a player batting at the crease in a game will score a six or a four off each ball that the opponent bowls.

In expounding on the point a simple calculation would indicate that a four runs of each ball i.e. (4× 120 balls) = 480 runs per innings or in the case of a six off each ball the innings would have closed at (6 × 120 balls) = 720 runs.

The game has not yet seen those scores and the WI batters seems to aiming to be the first team to reach those milestones! ‘Hitting the leather off each ball’.

I cannot put it any other way because this seems to be their approach in recent series against England and more evidently in that T20 match which they lost on June 6 at the Riverside grounds.

‘Brainless cricket’ may be a bit too harsh to describe the batting of the players in Friday’s match but it is too far from summarising it in that manner. With a more calculated approach by the batters WI could have won.

It is not about lack of talented players in the region, as some would say. WI has some of most productive talented batters in the game today. From Andre Russell, Evin Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford, Rovman Powell, Johnson Charles, to Nicholas Pooran … the list goes on.

The players should also exercise flexibility and have a different mindset on how they approach T20 internationals (T20I) as opposed to franchise T20 cricket. Both are professional cricket but franchise cricket, in my view, is ‘entertainment oriented’ while international cricket is ‘nation oriented’.

In international cricket there is more at stake, the players are representing a nation whose pride is in their hands.

And arguably the standard of T20I cricket is much higher than franchise T20 cricket. I would like to hear other views on this matter.

DALGALISH HENRY SR