Saturday 27 / July / 2024
Gros Islet: West Indies' bowling coach Roddy Estwick was satisfied with the effort put in by the bowlers which saw them blow away Indian top-order leaving them rattled at 126 for five before Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha saved the day for the visitors on Tuesday.
"We tried to be as disciplined as possible. If you look back in the past, we were leaking runs especially in Australia where we were going at 4-5 runs an over. We are trying to make sure that we learn a little bit more discipline. It's Test cricket, and it's all about patience and restricting," said Estwick after the day's play.
"We've worked hard on trying to get the boys to execute out plans. We are playing against India, which right now is probably one of the stronger batting sides in the world. You've got to be disciplined, you know they're trying to play shots and we're working very hard."
Estwick said that one needs to be patient as it is a young Caribbean attack.
"It's a young, young attack. We've got Miguel Cummins in his second Test, Alzarri in his first, Shannon Gabriel in his 17th, the captain in his 16th and Roston Chase in his third Test. It takes time but we're trying to build blocks and we're trying to work and get there," he added.
Talking about the 19-year-old debutant Joseph, who dismissed both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma cheaply, he said: "We're happy with his day's work. Obviously, it's his first Test and he got two big wickets for us, and his pace didn't look too bad. As he goes on and he understands Test cricket, he will go from bowling 10 overs in a match to 20 overs.
"We've got high hopes for him. He's young at 19 and it's only good for West Indies cricket that we can get some firepower as well to add to Shannon's firepower as well."
"Well obviously he had to be integrated into the side," he added, explaining why the youngster wasn't picked earlier.
"It takes time. It's a big step coming in from the under-19 side to Test cricket. He came in the second Test and the selectors felt he was ready, we felt with this pitch with a little bit more bounce and pace in it, that it was a good time to release him and obviously he did well. It's his first day in Test cricket and I'm sure he would be happy with it. And he can build on that."
Estwick also had words of praise of Ashwin and Saha for the manner in which they got India out of trouble.
"You have got to give credit to Ashwin and Saha, obviously they played well. We had a little bit of bad luck with Ashwin getting out to a no ball. There were one or two close shaves as well.
"Credit to them, they batted well and that's what Test cricket is about. It ebbs and flows. We've got to refresh ourselves and come back tomorrow, and try to restrict them to around 300," he signed off.
