BIRMINGHAM, England, (CMC) — Following a lean run of scores by openers Brandon King and Evin Lewis in their just-concluded series against Ireland, West Indies white-ball skipper Shai Hope is banking on them to come good in their upcoming One-Day International (ODI) series against England, which begins here on Thursday.

Both batsmen struggled at the top of the order, with King scoring 29 runs in the three ODIs at an average of 9.67, while Lewis scored 36 runs at an average of 12.

However, speaking in a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Hope said despite their run of low scores, he expects the two experienced openers to show their quality against the home side in their three-match series.

“It’s very important to bank on previous success. They’ve shown how capable they are to perform at this level, and playing at the international level, the biggest thing for me is confidence.

“As a batter, as long as you have the confidence, regardless of if the runs are coming or not, it’s only a matter of time before that big score comes,” Hope said.

“They are two class players, quality players, and I think it is a blessing in disguise in a sense, where they will be even more hungry for this series, not having that big spark in Ireland.

“So if they can click along with the middle order, which has been scoring runs for the last couple of months, I think we’re going to be a very, very good batting line-up,” he maintained.

Hope said the regional team had made tremendous strides within the past year, especially in their batting, where they had shown they were among the best ODI sides in the world.

He said based on those performances he expected the West Indies to compete fiercely with England.

“Certainly, we’re doing more than competing. When you look at the data over the last year or so, we have been matching statistically the top four batting teams, and like I said previously, there are so many things we can commend the boys on over the last few series and the last few months.

“The batting has been a big standout for me personally and it’s great to see the boys are chipping in and always finding ways to improve their game to be at that elite standard that we ask for in international cricket,” Hope said.

“It’s just a stepping stone, so we just have to keep improving in every single area as best as we can and then have that complete team and performances more consistently over the next few years.”