(SPORTS MAX) West Indies coach, Phil Simmons, insists the team is looking for improvement in every area ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka, on Sunday, but particularly targeted once again achieving the elusive 400 runs first innings score.
In recent matches, the regional team has carved out some momentum, following up hard-fought Test series win over Bangladesh with a T20 and dominant ODI series win over Sri Lanka. Heading into the start of Sunday’s Test series, however, Simmons is far from satisfied.
“We need to improve in every area, we had a good series but there are lots of things we need to keep improving on,” Simmons told Windies cricket.
“We need to make sure we get 400 in the first innings, which is something that we are striving for every time we play. Then we have to bowl and bat even better than we did in Bangladesh,” he added.
The West Indies reached 400 first innings runs last month, in the series against Bangladesh, but reaching the total has proven to be the exception rather than the rule. Prior to that, the team got to the total against Sri Lanka in 2018.
The highest first innings total, in the last 10 years, was 590 against India in 2011, in total they have achieved the feat seven times. By comparison, Australia has achieved the feat 27 times within the same period.
