Hope calls for better all-round execution

July 24, 2025
West Indies’ T20I captain Shai Hope
West Indies’ T20I captain Shai Hope

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC):

West Indies white-ball skipper Shai Hope is not satisfied with the batting, bowling and fielding performances of his side in the opening two T20 Internationals (T20I) against Australia.

The home side was thumped by eight wickets in the second T20I on Tuesday at Sabina Park to fall behind 0-2 in the five-match series.

The West Indies posted a below par score of 172 for eight in their 20 overs and then dropped six catches in a sloppy showing in the field.

Both Josh Inglis and Cameron Green, who went on to score match-winning unbeaten half centuries for Australia, were dropped twice.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Hope said while the series was not yet over, the West Indies needed to string together a slew of complete performances to get back into the contest.

"There is certainly a lot that we can learn from and get better at going forward. We have three more games in the series, it's not all doom and gloom as yet, but we certainly have to improve our game a lot faster.

"It's one of those things where you can see the importance of those catches, especially on a surface which I thought maybe got a little bit better in the second innings to bat on," Hope said.

"If you put down quality players like that then you're going to find yourself playing catch up every single time when you're trying to defend a total."

However, Hope admitted that there also needed to be significant improvements in the team's batting and bowling.

"I would also like to see a better execution with both bat and ball. I think if you look at the Aussie batters, when they go big they clear the ropes every single time and I can't really say the same for our batters, so it's about being precise with our execution when we bat.

"And then the same thing goes for when we bowl. We haven't really been hitting those wide yorkers and those straight yorkers that we really practise in the nets. I think when we're trying to go wide we aren't going as wide as we need to, so I think it boils down to execution in both departments and obviously in the fielding department as well where we lacked with those dropped catches," Hope pointed out.

The skipper used the opportunity to laud Andre Russell, who was playing in his final international match for the West Indies, on a successful international career.

He said it was unfortunate that he didn't bow out on a winning note.

"With Andre everything speaks for itself. We don't need to go into fine details about what he's achieved.

"He's one of those household names when you talk about T20 cricket. If you mention T20 cricket he's one of the first names that you'd call, so we're very grateful and thankful for his contribution to West Indies cricket and I think he's been a real inspiration for most of the Caribbean cricketers, not just Jamaican, so hats off to him, I wish him well for the rest of his life," Hope said.

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