Chase heartened by West Indies fightback

DELHI, India (CMC):

WEST INDIES Test captain Roston Chase has hailed his troops for their courageous performance against India in the second Test, despite losing the match and the Test series.

The regional side pushed the match into the fifth and final day, before the home side eventually wrapped up victory on Tuesday by seven wickets to take the two-match Test series 2-0.

Following a poor performance by the batsmen in the first innings that resulted in them being asked to follow-on, opener John Campbell scored his maiden Test century, while Shai Hope ended an eight-year drought for a Test ton to see the West Indies get up to 390 in their second innings.

And even though it was the Windies’ sixth defeat in seven Test matches since the start of the year, Chase said he was encouraged by the fighting spirit which the team showed, following their embarrassing defeat by an innings and 140 runs in the opening Test inside three days.

“I think this is the kind of fight that I wanted to see from us from matches before, so I think this is a stepping stone, a building block for us to move forward and improve as a Test-playing nation.

“This is the performance that I think will give us the confidence, and boost us in terms of that belief that we can do it against proper Test-playing nations,” Chase said during a post-match press conference on Tuesday.

“So yeah, I just want to see the guys continue in this vein and don’t let us go back to those ways. Even if it is for us to lose, we have to lose in a good way, in a positive way, where we can have a lot of positives coming out of the game.”

However, Chase admitted that there were still several areas which the West Indies needed to improve, especially in the batting department.

“Well, I think where we can improve mainly is our batting, I think that’s what let us down for the last two series.

“I think we have a good bowling attack despite the fact that we had a few injuries, but I think once we can put good first-innings totals on the board, we will be able to fight for some wins in the Test Championship,” Chase said.

The skipper explained that losses to Australia and India, who are ranked among the best Test teams in the world, was the ideal preparation ahead of looming Test series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2026.

“We had a chat, and this first year in the cycle we always knew it was going to be tough with opposition like Australia and India, and then we go to New Zealand.

“But I think that if we learn from what we’ve done in those series and take into the next series where we have guys like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, who we are closer to in the rankings, I think we can be more competitive against those once we learn from these games,” Chase said.