West Indies want to improve on fielding

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, CMC – West Indies head coach Phil Simmons says his players will use warm-up matches against English County Warwickshire this weekend, to ramp up their fielding arsenal in preparation for the T20 World Cup starting next week in India.

West Indies start a two-match series against Warwickshire on Friday at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium after thrashing Zimbabwe two-nil in a similar series which ended here on Monday.

Simmons says he is confident West Indies fielders can once again drive fear in the hearts of opposing batsmen.

“It’s a case of making sure that we get back to a standard where people are afraid us in the field and we have the players that can put that fear into other people in the field,” said Simmons.

“I think we as a unit have to make sure everybody is doing their job and if we can get it to that stage by the 16th then people will be in for a shock”.

The Caribbean side displayed solid batting in their confidence boosting warm-up victories against Zimbabwe.

However Simmons expressed some reservations about their fielding especially during their final match against the Zimbabweans where catches were dropped.

“Think we need to make sure that we are in the field, that we are getting to the ball and we are hitting stumps and things like that,” he said.

“We dropped a few catches today…but we got to make sure that we are doing everything right by the time we leave here”.

The former West Indies all-rounder says he was impressed with the unbeaten century stand for the first wicket between Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher which led them to a 10 wicket victory against Zimbabwe on Monday.

He says competition for Chris Gayle’s opening spot is healthy for the regional side.

“This was a much better wicket than two days ago and they showed what they are capable of doing,” said Simmons.

“They are both in a way fighting for a spot as Chris Gayle has to come in so it’s good for them to show what they have and for us to know that if Chris is not there that we still have people who can do the job up top”.

West Indies are also scheduled to play warm-up matches against India and Australia next week.