Coach Ottis Gibson expects better show from West Indies in second Test

Mumbai - After having suffered an embarrassing innings defeat in the first cricket Test in Kolkata, West Indies coach Ottis Gibson Sunday said his batsmen are now determined to leave their stamp of authenticity on the second Test against India that starts Thursday at the Wankhede Stadium here.

The Windies had a full training session in steamy conditions here Sunday morning at the venue where they hope to level the two-Test series, following a gut-wrenching innings and 51-run defeat inside three days in the first Test, which ended last Friday at Eden Gardens.

Gibson feels Sunday’s training session would help them knock some more of the rust off their game and get into the right frame of mind to put up a stronger challenge the second time around.

“There is only so much talking any coach can do,” said Gibson.

“When you play five batsmen, and you sit down and stress the importance of those five batsmen batting long, and you set yourself a challenge of batting a day and a half in the first innings, it is then up to those five batsmen to negotiate whatever the opposition bowlers throw at them and hang around for five days,” he said.

Gibson said that the batsmen have to learn from their mistakes.

“When you have a run-out and a couple of soft dismissals within those five batsmen then it puts pressure on everybody else. That is exactly what happened. We have to get better. We have to learn from those mistakes and try not to repeat them – but we were a bit rusty coming and I expect to see a much better showing from this West Indies team in the next Test,” he said.

Gibson said West Indies have to bat for three days if they want to equalise the series.

“We won the toss in good batting conditions and we batted 70-odd overs in the first innings. That is just not good enough. We know in India you have to bat long, put runs on the board, 400 minimum in the first innings really. So the 234 that we made was pretty average and that’s why you see us trying to get into the nets,” he said.

“We were little bit rusty coming in, but we are not going to use that as an excuse. We still had our opportunities to make scores – we had six or seven guys who got starts and did not carry on. Only one guy got a half-century. When India batted only one or two of those guys got starts and made hundreds. And that was the difference.”

On the decision to pick just five top-order batsmen, Gibson said: “When you look at the result, you will tend to want to think that way, but this is the combination that has won us our last few Tests and we back those guys.”

Gibson said the team management will look into the best combination to win the second Test here.

“They did not perform as we expect and this is something we have to consider going into the next Test. It is a two-Test series and we have to look at the best combination to put out to make sure we win here. It is the way this team goes out and play that will make the difference,” he said.