Our Improved game against spin helped us win in Bangladesh - Roston Chase

Roston Chase, the captain of the West Indies, stated that his team's improved batting against spin helped them win the Test series against Bangladesh. He said that choosing the spinning surfaces backfired on the home side. Following their dominance of the home team in Dhaka last week, they prevailed 1-0 in the drawn Sylhet Test.

In the two Tests, the visitors' average with the bat against Bangladesh's spin was 47.81, and they lost 16 wickets. Additionally, their spinners bowled much better than the home team, taking 24 wickets at a rate of 26.79. It was the deciding factor in a Test series that would have kept Bangladesh in a stronger position to win the WTC final.

Instead, Bangladesh has seen West Indies win consecutive Test series since 2021. They also finished their first calendar year without losing a Test series since 1994.

According to Chase, a red-ball batting camp in Chennai prior to the Bangladesh series contributed to their batting unit's improvement against spin bowling. He stated that they were prepared for either spin-friendly or pace pitches, but the home team chose spin-friendly.

Chase stated, "The spinners usually eat us for dinner when we usually come to Bangladesh." "But I think that we are an improved unit in terms of playing spin and also the preparation that most of the guys had going to Chennai and preparing in similar conditions in India, practising against lots of spin and working on areas that we weren't so good at. It proved to me that good preparation results in success, and I thought it worked well.

"We came here with an open mind because we know that Bangladesh have been using seam attack more in the past few games that they have won. Therefore, if the wickets were favorable to spin, we would have the same artillery in the spin department as if the wickets were favorable to seam. They failed miserably when they went with the spinning surfaces. So, we're very happy."

Given how the home team has performed in recent months, Chase stated that a victory for the West Indies in Bangladesh is significant. "I am very content. It goes without saying that playing cricket in Bangladesh is always difficult. Therefore, it is always a pleasure to defeat them in their own backyard. We wanted to win both games, but we were unable to do so.

"This game was a bit slower than the first one, especially with all the bad light taking time out of the game, so it made it a bit even harder for us to win. However, I thought our performance remained strong, and congratulations to the team for winning the series.

Chase thought back on how West Indies did at the beginning of this WTC cycle. He said they wanted to do better against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh because they thought these teams were better than them.

"The first year of the cycle was hard for us. We talked about how the team came out on top in the second cycle, when they played Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. We thought that these were teams that were closer to our skill level and obviously closer to us in the rankings. As a result, we wanted to push ourselves to win all three series. I thought it was a good year because we won two of the three games we played.

"We did not lose a series [this year]. This is something that hasn't been done for a number of years. It just goes to show that anything is doable if you sit down, plan, and put in the effort. I just think that we're going in the right direction as a unit and as a team," said Chase.

The West Indies' spin unit provided solid support, particularly Jomel Warrican, who took 16 wickets in the Test series. It took him to 100 Test wickets, becoming only the second left-arm spinner from West Indies to reach the milestone. He also has 76 wickets in Asia, second most for the team behind Courtney Walsh's 77.

"In both games, I thought Warrican bowled well. He was very good at controlling his economy rate. I thought he put a lot of pressure on the batsmen and kept the balls in front of them for a long time. So, I thought that was the hallmark of his bowling throughout the series, along with spinning and straightening as well. So, I thought he really kept us in this series and won it for us," Chase said.

Chase said that he doesn't really regret how the Sylhet Test slipped out of their grasp on the third afternoon. Towhid Hridoy slammed an unbeaten 242, adding more than 200 runs batting with the last two batters: "We came here to win both games to see if we could move up to sixth in the Test rankings. Towhid Hridoy played a great innings, which is what Test cricket is all about, and I thought we were in a great position to push for a win. However, that was not the case. Sometimes you think that you're in a commanding position and then someone comes and does something spectacular. That concludes the game.