Upcoming West Indian batsman, Lendl Simmons, who has earned a recall in the national team for the series against Pakistan, is hopeful of making a real impact in the series and stamping his class on the international scene.
The youngster, who is the nephew of former West Indian batsman and occasional medium pacer, Phil Simmons, stated that he has become “mentally stronger" cricketer from the one, who last played for West Indies in 2010.
He added that the series provides an ideal opportunity for him to showcase his talents and cement a spot in the young batting line-up that is entering the series without the much vaunted trio of Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
Simmons was hailed as a real prospect, who could serve the team for many years yet he has not been able to perform with any degree of consistency at the highest level especially when the situation became tough.
Now he feels that he has matured a great deal and knew what the requirements at the big level were.
"I see myself as a more mature player and I'm putting a lot more thought into my preparation for games and when I go onto the field of play as well”.
Simmons was first selected for the West Indies in 2006 making his One Day International (ODI) debut, from there onwards he was the star performer for his country in the World Twenty20 in England in 2009.
In that event he ended up with a tally of 150 runs at 30.00 and taking six wickets, the West Indians made it to the semi-finals where they were drubbed by Sri Lanka.
However, Simmons’s graph dipped badly from there. He had a barren run in an ODI series in Australia in February 2010 where he managed just 50 runs in five One-Dayers. His highest score was 29 and the selectors had little faith left in him.
As a result of the barren run he was axed from the team and spent time on the side-lines aiming to regain his touch and make a comeback for the West Indian team.
Besides Simmons the West Indian selection panel has inducted many youngsters for the first three matches of the Pakistan series. The contest gets underway with a one-off T-20 match on the April 21, 2011. After that the two teams would be locked in a five match ODI series, thus far, the squad has been announced for the first two games.
Simmons would be expected to take the brunt of the batting along with Devon Smith, Darren Bravo and Kirk Edwards.
Simmons told the West Indian media that he was desperate to make an impression and wanted to make full use of his talent and the maturity that he has acquired over the years by regularly playing first class cricket.
"It feels really great to be back in the West Indies team set-up and among the players again as we look forward to facing Pakistan. I was away for a year and in that period I had a lot of time to reflect and analyze my game. I am happy to be back and I believe I am mentally stronger".
On the other hand, the Pakistanis have also inducted many youngsters in the team. The changes have been made with an eye on the next World Cup set to be played in Australia and New Zealand in 2015.
As such the series is set to provide enthralling cricket between the two evenly matched teams.
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