Batting a concern as WI Women head into World Cup qualifiers

ST JOHN'S (CMC):

West Indies Women's head coach Shane Deitz has expressed concern with the susceptibility of his batters to spin bowling as they prepare for next month's World Cup qualifiers in Pakistan.

The West Indies Women will battle with Bangladesh, Pakistan, Ireland, Scotland and Thailand from April 4 to 19, for two spots at the Women's World Cup, which will take place in India in October.

Speaking during a virtual media interaction on Monday, Deitz said while he was impressed with the standard of play in the just-completed CG United Women's Super50 Cup, the inability of batters to play spin bowling was an area of concern.

Deitz pointed to the fact that the majority of teams at the qualifiers will rely on spinners, making it necessary for West Indies Women's batters to be proficient against them.

"It's been a good two weeks looking at some of the up-and-coming and older players who have been in West Indies cricket for some time.

"It was a good opportunity to see everyone in action ... and a good opportunity for me to see what was out there. There were some really good positive things and some things that we need to improve on," Deitz said.

"I think the spin bowling across the whole tournament was really good, but the main thing that stood out to me was the batting and the lack of scores, the low strike rates, no big hundreds made by anyone in the whole tournament.

"So, the batting side of it and particularly playing against spin bowling is a bit of a concern moving forward, particularly the younger players not really having big scores and dominating the tournament, which we need them to do," he added.

However, Deitz said plans were already in motion to address the problem ahead of the qualifiers.

"Moving forward, we're putting some plans together on how to tackle that, and the big improvement that we need to do, because obviously, playing most teams in women's cricket, spin is a big factor.

"We're going to the qualifiers where Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand will be bowling 90 to 95 per cent spin bowling to us. So it's something we're going to work on, and that was probably the biggest disappointment of the 50-over competition," Deitz said.