West Indies coach sees positives despite defeat to England in Test series

BIRMINGHAM: West Indies suffered a whitewash in their test series against England, which ended in a heavy defeat in the third match at Edgbaston on Sunday, but coach Andre Coley said there were significant positives to take from the tour.

The West Indies squad have only a few days off before they reassemble in Trinidad to prepare for the start of a two-test series against South Africa next week. “With a young emerging side, there would have been a lot said about this being a walkover,” Coley said of the series against England.

“Obviously, we should have competed better, but we did show a lot of fight during the series. “From a batting standpoint, I was very pleased with our scoring rate, tempo, especially in the second test,” the coach said

As for the bowlers, Coley said English conditions had caught a young attack a lot about adjusting their lengths and handling crowd pressure. “Those were significant positives that we can take from this series, as we approach to South Africa series,” he added.

The first test against South Africa starts in Port of Spain on Aug. 7, with a second test in Guyana from Aug. 15-19. Coley said the focus going forward was “the process”. “You’re not going to get great performances every day,” he added. “But one thing you can actually have some control over is going through your processes every single day and giving yourself the best chance of performance.” West Indies have won two of the last 11 tests and are home for the first time in more than year since losing a two-test series to India.