Former WI batting coach says 'panic' at the heart of collapses

Thu, Dec 10, '20

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Former West Indies Coach Toby Radford has questioned the mentality of the Caribbean side's batsmen, and has pointed to “panic” as one of the main reasons for their chronic collapses in the Test format.

Welshman Radford, a member of the successful coaching staff which oversaw West Indies' stunning series win over England last year, said once the key top order batsmen Kraigg Brathwaite and Darren Bravo were dismissed, “panic runs through the dressing room” because of the pressure placed on the middle order to rebuild.

“When they get knocked over quickly, suddenly there's pressure on Roston [Chase] in the middle, [Jermaine] Blackwood is in there, before you know it Jason [Holder] is coming in and you're under pressure,” said Radford, who completed two spells as Windies batting coach from 2012-13 and 2016 to 2019.

“What we do know with the West Indies team is when they lose one or two wickets, suddenly they're five down — they go bang, bang, bang. It's almost like the confidence is lost and that's [in their] mental capacity to say, 'We've lost two, we're going to be calm, we're going to rebuild, we're going to build a new partnership.'

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