Game slipped away from our hands on 1st day itself: Corey Collymore

The visitors were in deep trouble after being reduced to 94/6 in their first innings in reply to India's mammoth 649/9

In reply to India’s mammoth 649, the West Indies got reduced to 94/6 by the end of second day’s play. After a dramatic downfall, West Indies bowling coach Corey Collymore suggested that the visitors have to toil really very hard to save the ongoing first Test in Rajkot.

The former Windies pacer admitted that absence of regular skipper Jason Holder and the team’s unimpressive bowling have pulled them back right on the first day.

“Yesterday was a very hard day. You have to realise again with two young gentlemen - one making the debut and the other playing his second Test (Sherman Lewis and Keemo Paul) - they found it difficult with conditions, playing first time in India,” said Collymore.

“You have to be honest with yourself. India is in the ascendancy and it's only Day Two, already seriously behind so it's going to take a mammoth effort for us to pull it back. But again, you don't come to Test match cricket to just surrender,” he added.

The 40-year-old from Barbados said the bowlers will learn a lot from the India tour including the home team's attack.

“From a bowling point of view, I stressed to the bowlers to have a look and see how well the Indians started. That's something I was talking out, our starts. If you look at yesterday, we started too wide and too short.

“Sherman was on his debut and he is a good lad, I saw him in the U-19s and in some of the practice games and he has got a fantastic record, but to me, it's still gonna be 22 yards and the lengths don't change. You have to be better at doing that going forward.”

Speaking on the kind of competition West Indies going to put, Collymore said, “We certainly haven't come down to compete. As a group, we have come here to win, doesn't matter if you are No. 1 or No. 8, so yes, that's what we are here to do. Anyway, our Test and limited-overs teams are quite different.”