CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh (CMC) — Assistant West Indies coach Roddy Estwick said Sunday there were no excuses to be made for the Caribbean side’s dismal performance in the One-Day International series here.

While acknowledging that West Indies had been impacted by the withdrawal of up to 10 first-choice players, Estwick said it was still important for those who had been selected to face up to the challenges before them and execute their game properly.

“When you have the kind of disruptions we’ve had for this series here in Bangladesh, it’s always going to be a challenge but you can’t hide behind that, we’ve got to work with what we have here in Bangladesh and we’ve got to continue to work and we’ve got to continue to work hard and try to improve the overall performances,” Estwick told reporters.

He added: “It’s up to the players to believe in themselves. They’re representing the West Indies and you’ve got to be proud of playing for your country. It is something that you’ve dreamt about.

“Take the team out of it…you wanted to play international cricket, you’ve been given the opportunity. Embrace that opportunity and go out and fight tooth and nail for the West Indies.”

A West Indies XI featuring six debutants crashed to a six-wicket defeat in the opening match last Wednesday, and followed up with an equally limp performance two days later, to slide to a seven-wicket loss.

The major failing in both matches proved to be the touring side’s weak batting as they managed to only post meagre totals of 122 and 148, with not a single batsman scoring a half-century.

Estwick said the failure to produce large totals was a matter which stemmed from the West Indies first class championship and which had already engaged the attention of the coaching staff.

“They’re not getting scores so a lot of players are going into the unknown,” Estwick pointed out.

“They’re not accustomed to putting big scores on the board. The teams are very comfortable defending 220, 240 and we’re trying to change that.

“We’re having discussions, we’re coming up with plans to try to see how we can get the scores bigger. We’re not only looking at this series but we have to look to the 50-over World Cup in 2023, so a lot of our planning is geared around that.”

Despite the deficiencies in the batting, West Indies have shown glimpses of promise with the ball, in particular left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein, who bowled superbly to finish with four for 26 from his allotted 10 overs in the opening ODI.

And with fast bowler Alzarri Joseph also putting in decent shifts in the two matches so far, Estwick said he was pleased with the bowling effort but said it had been difficult to properly assess the attack due to the small totals they had to defend.

“We haven’t had a big enough score to really challenge Bangladesh from a bowling point of view but there’ve been some good signs…,” he explained.

“You look at Alzarri Joseph in both games and young Akeal Hosein in his first two international games, they’ve gone well but you can’t really gauge from a bowling point of view until you have a score where you can challenge the opposition and where you can see the improvement the bowlers have made.”