Pakistan have always been a quality cricket team, irrespective of the format, but their lack of consistency is well known throughout the cricket world. But Pakistan faced no such problems against World T20 champions – West Indies – who lost the T20 series 0-3. West Indies skipper Carlos Brathwaite believes they were outplayed in all the departments of the game, and blamed the batsmen for their failure to score runs, resulting in an embarrassing defeat.
Coming into this T20 series, there were great hopes of brilliant cricket from both the teams, but West Indies players did not turn up in the shorter format. After winning the World T20 in India, they also defeated MS Dhoni and his men in the T20 series in US, but their players were flat throughout the recently concluded series.
West Indies have some quality batsmen in their ranks, but Marlon Samuels, Johnson Charles and Evin Lewis were below par in the series. They missed the services of Chris Gayle, for sure. West Indies scored 115 runs (1st ODI), 144 (2nd) and 103 (3rd) in the series, which is embarrassing when teams across the world score around 170 runs in one single T20.
Brathwaite was disappointed with his batsmen, but he feels the need to make some strong plans for the ODI series, which starts on Friday.
"We didn't bat well in the first six in three games. We never got a competitive total but Pakistan outplayed us in all three games. It's a matter of skill and temperament. We will go back to the drawing board. We have the ODIs coming up, have to put in a better performance. A different series, we need to come back in the 50-over format. I'll go review my own performance as skipper," Brathwaite said during the presentation ceremony.
West Indies looked below par in the series, but we should not take anything away from Pakistan's win as the Men in Green deserved this massive victory. Pakistan played quality all-round cricket to get the better of West Indies in the series, with Imad Wasim being the standout bowler, picking up nine wickets, helping him win the man of the series award as well.
Moving forward, Pakistan will hope to continue their dominance in the ODI series, where West Indies will hope to make a strong comeback.
