Law welcomes Pakistan lessons

KARACHI, Pakistan (CMC):

West Indies head coach Stuart Law believes the three-match series against Pakistan provided an excellent opportunity for the assessment of players on the fringe of international selection.

The Caribbean side was without several of their leading players and suffered a humbling whitewash in the short Twenty20 series at the National Stadium, but Law said the benefits of the series went beyond the result.

"It is a great opportunity for our young players and a great opportunity for me to see what the young players have got as well and not just in a practice regime or in domestic cricket, but in international cricket against a quality outfit like Pakistan," the Australian said.

"That's the thing we've got with this team here, everyone is learning. It's very difficult to learn in an atmosphere like this. We've struggled but at least we're showing some fight."

The 13-man squad included four debutants - Keemo Paul, Veerasammy Permaul, Odean Smith and Andre McCarthy - while several other members of the squad had only played a handful of matches.

Veteran Marlon Samuels was the most senior member of the squad, while Denesh Ramdin, while also experienced, was returning to the squad for the first time since being dropped from all formats in 2016.

The likes of captain Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine all opted not to travel for the series, which marked the return of high profile international cricket to the country following a nine-year break.

West Indies will have some time off before their next engagement, when they take on Sri Lanka in three Tests in the Caribbean in June.

And Law said rest and preparation would mark the Windies schedule in coming weeks.

"We've got a bit of time off. We've got the IPL (Indian Prenier League) window, so mostly, the international boys will be having some rest, and then we have a three-match Test series against Sri Lanka coming up in June, so there will be bit of preparation that."