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Ahead of his side's final group stage match against ICC T20 World Cup, West Indies batting coach Floyd Reifer hailed batter Shimron Hetmyer, saying that he is a "proper batsman" who is "unfortunately" playing the finisher role and over the years, his training habits have underwent improvement.
West Indies, who have been unbeaten so far in their campaign, will be aiming to make it four wins in four matches when they take on Italy in their final group stage match at Kolkata's Eden Gardens, who have impressed one and all with their fighting spirit in this competition. Speaking ahead of the match in a pre-match presser, Flyod said about Hetmyer, "First, let me say, Hetmyer came with the youth cricket in 2016 as one of our best young batters in the Caribbean. Hetmyer is a proper batsman. It is just unfortunate that he was put into roles as a finisher. But now, you guys are seeing the best of Hetmyer in terms of his batsmanship. So, he can bat at number three, score runs and still finish games." "So, I think you are seeing the best out of him. He has been preparing well. His training habits has improved. His ethic is very good. And every session, he is aiming to improve on certain aspects of his game. So you guys are seeing the best of Hety (Hetmyer) right now," he added. So far in the tournament, Hetmyer has scored 133 runs in three innings at an average of 66.50 and a strike rate of over 166, with a fifty and best score of 64. In nine T20Is this year, he hasmade 366 runs at an average of 52.28 and a strike rate of over 177, including two fifties. On the other hand, the Italy head coach John Davison spoke on his side's longer format journey in future and how T20WC has proven to be helpful so far, saying that his side would like to play more cicket and is upto the administrators (the ICC) to ensure it and for their local body to make sure that turf facilities and infra to host games is installed on time. "Obviously we would love to play more cricket. We realise that there is a limited pool of funds that needs to be distributed worldwide. But if some came our way, we would be happy to develop some facilities. That would probably be the number one thing for the federation to get some turf facilities and be able to host games in Italy would be something that we would dream of I suppose and it'd be great for the game," he said during the pre-match presser. Also, batter and captain Wayne Madsen, who accompanied Davison to the presser, said that during this World Cup with some sprited performances, including a win over Nepal and a valiant attempt at chasing 202 against England, falling short by 24 runs, has shown that they can do well on global stage in cricket. We would like to think that we would be at the next World Cup. All going well in terms of the number of games we are able to play, the further experience that we could get as a team. Yeah, so all being well in that regard, we would like to think we would be at the next World Cup," he added. Davison also said that as per his understanding, the Senate in Italy back home want to have a reception for the team. "I understand that the Senate back home, the Senate in Italy want to have a reception for the team and things like that. Yeah, so there is some recognition there definitely at high levels. In all, great experience for every one of us involved, yeah, from the back staff to the opening batter. It's been a great experience," he added. Squads: Italy Squad: Justin Mosca, Anthony Mosca, JJ Smuts, Harry Manenti(c), Ben Manenti, Grant Stewart, Marcus Campopiano, Gian Meade(w), Jaspreet Singh, Crishan Kalugamage, Ali Hasan, Syed Naqvi, Zain Ali, Thomas Draca, Wayne Madsen West Indies Squad: Brandon King, Shai Hope(w/c), Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Sherfane Rutherford, Rovman Powell, Jason Holder, Matthew Forde, Akeal Hosein, Gudakesh Motie, Shamar Joseph, Romario Shepherd, Jayden Seales, Quentin Sampson, Johnson Charles. (ANI)
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