We are still trying to find our best opening combination: Carlos Brathwaite

Prior to Windies ODI series against India, both Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, their regular openers, withdrew themselves from the team. Hence, they didn’t quite have the right personnel in the opening slot. Kieran Powell and Chandrapaul Hemraj opened in the 50-overs format. Both promised with some jaw-dropping strokes, but couldn’t quite carry on and convert their starts.

The Caribbean team has tried out Denesh Ramdin, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer in the shortest format, but neither of them has been able to score big thus far. Resultantly, Windies have strained to take advantage of the fielding restrictions and have handed over the advantage to the home team. Quite expectantly, their T20I skipper Carlos Brathwaite sounded worried.

I myself was disappointed

“We didn’t come to the tour with an out-and-out opener, so we are still trying to find our best opening combination. There were a few theories in the first game and also this game, on how we wanted our batting order, for different reasons. Ultimately neither worked, because we failed to get a good start,” Brathwaite was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

“But we’re working with the players we have on tour, and it’s difficult to choose the best batting pair, but we’re trying. Up until a theory works out, it will look bad and give the pundits something to say,” he added.

Windies have already lost two of their three matches and lost the series 2-0 with one match still to be played at M.A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. In the first match, the visiting team showed fight after being bowled out for a paltry score. However, the second match in Lucknow turned out to be a one-sided affair as India won by 71 runs.

Talking about last night’s performance, Brathwaite said, “Last game we bowled and fielded very well, but today I don’t think we fielded as well as we wanted to. I myself was disappointed with my bowling effort. We let the team down with the ball, and chasing 195 was always going to be an uphill task, but there were a few positives.”

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