By Sherdon Cowan (Sportsman) West Indies seamer Jayden Seales believes there is no need to hit the panic button just yet, despite a dismal all-round display in the opening One Day International against England. Instead, the young fast bowler says the team is focused on correcting their mistakes and bouncing back with purpose in the second ODI at Sophia Gardens on Sunday.
The series opener at Edgbaston turned into a lopsided affair, as England posted a mammoth 400-8 after they capitalised on wayward bowling and sloppy fielding from the Caribbean side. In response, West Indies’ batting folded for a mere 162 in an all too familiar collapse.
But Seales is adamant that the team has learned quickly from their errors.
“We had a few honest and open discussions about where we went wrong as a bowling group. We obviously realised early enough that the ball wasn’t swinging much in the first game, and we still went searching a bit. I myself was very guilty of that,” Seales said following the squad’s training session in Cardiff.
“So that is one thing that we’re looking to improve on and just try to contain as much as possible. We also want to have the right field set and try and force the batsman to hit where we have the deep fielders,” he added.
Seales, who is still fairly new to the ODI format, having only played 20 matches so far, admitted the bowling unit strayed from their game plan and allowed England’s batters far too many scoring opportunities.
“We have to just stick to the basics as long as possible. I mean, at the end of the day, the batsmen are obviously going to try to be aggressive in the powerplay. So it’s for us to control our lengths and our lines and hold it for as long as possible until the batsman tries something different, and then in the middle overs and death, it’s all about execution for all of us,” Seales noted.
Despite the bruising nature of the Edgbaston defeat, Seales, 23, maintains there is no sense of panic within the group, as he pointed to the batting performances in previous series as one of the reasons for keeping the mood positive. The West Indies produced two solid performances of 352-8 and 385-7 in the last two contests against Ireland, performances Seales is confident that they can repeat.
“The batsmen have been really good for us, giving us the big scores and allowing us to be free when we go into bowl to defend our totals. So I think it’s just more of the same. We had a bad game in that first ODI, but I’m not really concerned about it,” the Trinidad and Tobago stalwart declared.
“We all know where we went wrong individually and collectively as a group. So it’s just about rebounding. We had a good training session today (Saturday), where we put the basics into practise, so now it’s for us to go into the game and execute our plans and stick to our plans for as long as possible,” he reasoned.
With the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup qualification points on the line, Seales is also aware of the broader significance of the series. The West Indies currently trail England in the ODI standings and are aiming to leapfrog their opponents with a series win — a crucial step following a frustrating drawn series against Ireland recently.
“We knew coming into this series that we needed to win if we wanted to jump ahead of England; unfortunately, we had a drawn series against Ireland. It would have been fantastic if we had won that series one nil or two nil, albeit the rain hampered the second match. So it’s just first to try and win the series now and gain as many points as possible leading up to the 2027 Cricket World Cup,” Seales ended.
