West Indies captain Jason Holder has called on his batsmen to take better care of rotating the strike and somewhat move away from the crash, bang, wallop approach they have preferred in recent years.
They famously won the World T20 with the same approach, then captain Darren Sammy daring eventual defeated final opponents England to stop them from reaching and clearing the rope.
Their approach then focused on backing themselves to hit boundaries, no matter how steep their target climbed in the middle overs.
And the West Indies have taken the same tact in the UAE so far, first in the T20I series that they lost 3-0 and now the ODIs, but with nowhere near the same success.
They were comprehensively whitewashed in the T20Is and suffered an 111-rund defeat in the first ODI by a Pakistan team that looks far more accomplished.
As you would expect, Pakistan have been far more at home in familiar surrounds where slow outfields and tacky pitches mean there are plenty of places to manoeuvre the ball around the field when boundaries are harder to come by.
In contrast, despite arriving in the UAE well ahead of schedule, the West Indies has so far looked a team not at the races, going through the motions rather than taking to the task set out in front of them.
Excellent performance by Pakistan in 1st ODI against Westindies.
— Fahad Mustafa (@fahadmustafa26) September 30, 2016
Superb knock by Babar & amazing spell by Nawaz đź‘Ť pic.twitter.com/aTAe38Ur1x
Plan A certainly hasn’t worked for the tourists so far.
They accumulated 137 dot balls in that first ODI, accounting for 22.5 overs worth of their entire 38.4 over long innings.
Holder instantly pointed to that as their major downfall in the opening ODI, saying that he will be asking his players to make every delivery count next time out.
“We need to look at areas where we can improve,” said Holder after Friday’s defeat in Sharjah. “One big area for us is our batting. We definitely need to set it up a lot better than we did today.
“It’s just a matter of rotating the strike a bit better than we did. I think, once we do that, going into the next game we will be in better shape.
What a fantastic talent Babar Azam looks. Calm & composed & has all the shots. First of many centuries for Pakistan #Cricket #PAKvWI
— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) September 30, 2016
“Obviously, spin has played a heavy part in our downfall. We just need to find ways to tick over the scoreboard and then maximise our boundary options. I think, once we do that, going into these next few games we should be in a lot better stead.
“I thought their fast bowlers bowled well, our fast bowlers bowled well, and we played them reasonably well up that point where we need to buckle a bit better to the spin.”
The series bears even greater meaning due to 2019 automatic World Cup qualifying that, as it stands, will see either Pakistan or West Indies forced to join the leading Associate Nations in order to gain a spot in the tournament.
If Pakistan win the series 3-0 then they will leapfrog West Indies into eighth place in the world rankings, which on September 30 next year will determine the final guaranteed place in England and Wales for full member sides.
