In a world unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, West Indies players wouldn't have spent as much time in the UK before the first Test of the series against England, which ultimately would've reflected in the team's preparation for the trip and might not have paved way for the resounding victory in Southampton it did.
Coach Phil Simmons stressed upon this as a big factor in Jason Holder-led team's success at the Ageas Bowl, where they dominated the hosts to go 1-0 up in the three-match rubber and a step near retaining the Wisden Trophy.
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“I think that has been the biggest influence on the performance. The fact that we’ve been here for that period of time, we’ve had quality bowling in the nets because we’ve had nearly 11 seamers here, you can’t put a price on that," said Simmons in a virtual conference ahead of the second Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, beginning Thursday (July 16).
“I don’t like to go back into my (playing) days, but we would come to England and play something like three or four proper warm-up games before the first Test, and we would also have three-day or four-day games in between the Test matches. So I think that period of training goes a long way to how we performed in that first Test," he added.
Simmons was effusive in praise of an all-round team effort, but did guard his wards against complacency as the next two games will test their resolve even more.
"For me, it was a great win because I think that it signified a lot of hard work being done by the players over the last four or five weeks. It was a top-class Test match, with good cricket played by both teams, and even coming down to the last hour, it could have gone either way."
"But you guard against complacency by just trying to do the same things you did before the first Test. Right now that Test match is history. We’ve got to be thinking about what we do from Thursday to Monday."
Simmons was really pleased with the fitness shown by Shannon Gabriel, who wasn't initially part of the main squad having just comeback from injury, and young Alzarri Joseph, especially in the last session of each day's play in Southampton.
Gabriel scalped nine wickets in the match, including a five-fer in the second innings, while Joseph ran-in in wonderful support of the rest of the attack, also featuring skipper Holder, whose 6/42 in the first essay helped the visitors dismiss England for just 204, and Kemar Roach, who went unrewarded for his efforts in the entire Test.
"The hardest time for bowlers, after bowling from the morning, is that last session,” Simmons said. "To see him (Gabriel) and Alzarri (Joseph) come up trumps in that session is so pleasing to us. With him coming back from that ankle surgery and working as hard he has worked since we’ve been here, it was a joy to see him successful in that period."
(Inputs from PTI)
