Nurse pleased with young West Indies

NORTH SOUND, Antigua, (CMC):

WEST INDIES men’s under-19 head coach Rohan Nurse said he is satisfied with the team’s overall showing in the just-concluded seven-match Youth One Day International series against Sri Lanka’s under-19s.

The regional side emerged 4-3 victors, despite losing the final rain-affected match on Monday, which the visitors won by 130 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern method at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

Nurse, who played first-class cricket for Barbados, said the series provided the perfect opportunity for players to be evaluated.

“It did provide a very good opportunity for us as staff to see the players in this environment, see how they react to certain situations that they would have faced.

“I thought, throughout the series, we did really well in the backend overs, whether it be batting or bowling. I thought we showed that there is a little bit of depth in the batting, especially towards the lower order with Jonathan van Lange playing a very important role throughout the series and Aadian Racha,” Nurse said.

“… I was happy with our fielding in periods during the series, as well as the confidence that would have grown and the trust among the team. You would have seen in the sixth game where we were at one point 128 for five and the batters formulated a plan and were able to execute it.”

However, with a series in November looming and the ICC Under-19 Men’s World Cup in early 2026, Nurse admitted that there were several areas that needed to be improved.

“There are also quite a few things to work on and, to be honest, a lot of these areas are only identified once players play at this level. So it’s been a very, very good opportunity for us to learn.

“One of the main areas is fitness. We want to continue to improve our fitness and we want our batters to trust in their abilities and their skills, because we’ve done quite a bit of work on using your feet and being able to sweep, but it’s not been to the stage where the players are confident enough to implement it in games,” Nurse pointed out.

“So we want to continue work in those areas, continuing to operate at the level of professionalism and intensity that we would have tried to implement here, and to continue to foster a culture of unity among them.”