Following the West Indies’ abysmal outing against England in their ICC T20 World Cup opener on Saturday, head coach Phil Simmons concedes that the batters need to be more aware of game situations if they are to advance in the competition.

The West Indies, defending champions, were bowled out for just 55 runs and subsequently lost by six wickets, England reaching their target of 56 losing four wickets in the process.

Several West Indies batters got out trying to clear the massive boundaries in Dubai, most notably Lendl Simmons, who was dismissed without scoring in a similar manner to how he got out against Afghanistan in the final warm-up game, swiping the spinner to deep midwicket and getting caught on the boundary.

His, and other dismissals are a cause for concern, Simmons told the media during a virtual press conference from Dubai on Sunday (October 24).

“There is a concern from yesterday (Saturday) because the game awareness and situational awareness was not at its best,” the coach conceded.

“From that point of view, definitely and it is something that is being addressed, not just with him (Lendl) but with all the players as to how we assess the situation that we are in because it can be assessed inside; those in the middle must assess the situation and play accordingly.”

Simmons, however, maintained that the team would still maintain their usual aggressive approach to batting.

“Well, the style in which we play our cricket has always been in the style in which we play our cricket,” he said.

“But we also got to assess the situation at the time and play according to the situation. So, there’s enough experience in the team for that; any two batsmen in there at the same time would have that experience to assess the situation and play accordingly. We will continue to be in our aggressive state, but our shot-selection and assessment of the situation must be a lot better.”

He also admitted that if the West Indies was to be successful against South Africa on Tuesday, the West Indies will have play a lot better than they did on Saturday.

For me, Saturday (against England) was just about bad shot selection. The bowling wasn’t, as we would say, extraordinary. All the guys have played against these guys before, so I just put it down to bad shot selection. We need to improve that tenfold by the time we get to Tuesday.”