Lendl Simmons: It's a Big Family

Rookie West Indies batsman Lendl Simmons says he feels most welcomed in the environment of the Windies team. Simmons is on his first tour with the senior team in Pakistan for the three test series after coming through the ranks from the West Indies Under 15 and Under 19 teams to the West Indies A Team.

"It is a different environment, a different atmosphere, it?s like a big family," Simmons said on Thursday. "It's just more comfortable being at this stage knowing that you could relax and play cricket, this is where I worked so hard to get and it is now a matter of maintaining the discipline to stay here," the 21-year-old said after his first senior West Indies outing against the Pakistan Cricket Board XI.

"It was a good experience playing my first game and going out to bat with (Dwayne) Bravo, I guess I was a little more comfortable knowing that we get along very well and we have a good understanding out in the middle," said Simmons who scored an impressive 40 at the Bagh-E-Jinah ground in the two day warm up game.

"The wicket was very easy and I adjusted quickly to it, I tried to get set by playing myself in and after I did that I unfortunately got out at 40," Simmons added.

"It was a good experience though, I didn?t feel under pressure at all, I hope that is the first of good things to come," Simmons said.

Speaking about facing the likes of Shahid Nazir and Abdul Rehman both of whom are in the Pakistan test team, Simmons said he faced a greater challenge when he went up against the likes of Shoaib Akthar, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi while playing for the A Team in England earlier this year.

"(Batting today) wasn't as challenging as the West Indies A Team but these guys today were pretty much determined to bowl us out, that was good and competitive for us," said Simmons who scored an unbeaten 108 against the Pakistan senior side last August.

Simmons also enjoyed watching Bravo score a hundred as he found good form before the first test starting on Saturday.

"Watching Bravo bat was a good sign to see him coming back to where I know he can bat, it's a good sign for West Indies as well to see him coming along with the bat," said Simmons who put on 120 with Bravo for the fourth wicket.

"Bravo batting well will benefit the team, I hope he can carry on in the test series and make some big runs especially since we know the middle order collapsed a few times after getting decent starts recently," Simmons said.

Simmons sees his maiden sojourn with the West Indies squad mainly as a learning experience and hopes to acquire enough knowledge and experience to stand him in good stead when he does make his test debut.

"I am now starting so it's a learning process, I guess I have to learn very fast and try to take part in everything so that when my turn comes I will have my thinking hat and my 'A' game on," he added.