India tour helps in judging yourself as player and coach - Pothas

Windies lost the fourth ODI by a massive margin of 224 runs. © crick247.blogspot.com

The last time Nic Pothas, Windies fielding coach, checked his players, they were 'humans not robots'. "So we're going to make errors under pressure, that's the nature of the game." Without reading much into Windies' bashing in the Mumbai ODI, he believes the way forward for his team is to have 'selective amnesia'.

What transpired at the Brabourne Stadium - a 224-run defeat - was India's biggest ODI win against a full member nation. While that may not have been a true reflection of the ability of the Windies, it was certainly closer to the realities of the gulf that lies between the two teams than what had transpired in the series earlier.

A few factors did work for the visitors in the first three games; primarily, the form of Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer, and the jaded performances by India. In a more spirited show by the hosts in the fourth ODI, Windies struggled to get even the slightest of opportunities.

Pothas credited India for bouncing back strongly after the series was levelled 1-1 and added, "That's exactly what you'd expect from a world leading team."

Windies were never expected to challenge India, let alone come to a point where they can share series honour. The fact that they did that with a near second-string unit is credible.

However, he refused to curtain the drawbacks of his side - which is young and inexperienced. Among the major areas of improvement that he expects from the players will be to quickly learn to be consistent for long periods of time, something that has ailed Windies cricket in recent years despite their success in the shortest format. And unlike Indian players, who mostly learn these ropes at lower levels, the Windies youngsters are left to do that at international cricket.

"It's a very young team. Not just from an international point of view but a volume of 50-over cricket point of view," he explained. "I think like anything, when you play at this level, whatever sport it might be, it's always going to come down to execution over a long period of time. We've seen that we can execute for short periods of time. The challenge is always going to be to execute over 100 overs. If you're going to beat India or England or Australia, Pakistan, you've got to execute for a 100 overs. And that takes physical ability, it takes skill ability, it takes mental ability. And fitness certainly comes in too.

"Physical fitness is always going to aid your recovery, it's going to aid your decision-making and it's going to aid your execution. So our young guys are learning all the time and they're having to learn at the international level, which is never easy. But they're getting better all the time and most importantly they're open to that learning. So we're very positive on them."

Having spent almost a month in India, touring and playing different formats, it's been a long journey so far away from home. And with four more games to go - and another round of trip left from south to the north of the country - they are on the Wednesday of this tour. While admitting that fatigue could play a part in dropping performances but doesn't want to use that as an excuse for what he believes is a professional unit.

"Travelling to India is always a wonderful tour. It's a great tour to judge yourself on as a player and as a coach. It's a great place to let yourself know where exactly you're at with your cricket," he said. "You know it's going to be tough when you come down here. At the end of the day, we're all professionals. Every time we walk onto the field, you've got to make sure your routines are good, make sure your processes are good, and you've got to compete."

Unlike India, however, Pothas agrees, Windies don't have the luxury to rest and rotate their players. A bunch of top cricketers opting out and a weak bench has resulted in some of the key players having to be in the playing XI all the time. Jason Holder may have grown immensely as an all-rounder and a captain but has rarely had opportunities to take a break.

Speaking on the issue, Pothas explains: "Jason plays a lot of cricket and it's not just what he does on the field. As a leader and as a captain he's doing well off it as well. He's a world-class performer and he's very important to this team. We'll want to have him on the field every day for the 365 days of the year. 24X7 if we could. But like I said, he's a human being, not a robot.

"The one thing that we don't have in West Indies and we have in India, England, Australia is you can rest players as you have real quality coming through behind them. Unfortunately we're not at that place where we can rest players when we want to, but, we've got to."

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