Bravo, Smith, Russell will beef up team - Ramdin

Denesh Ramdin, the West Indies wicketkeeper, has said the team's confidence has not been hampered despite consecutive losses to India A to open their tour. Despite a century from Ramdin, West Indians lost the second tour match by 16 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Even so, he said, the team was optimistic ahead of Wednesday's ODI series opener against India with reinforcements such as ODI captain Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith and Andre Russell due following the end of the Champions League T20.

"We are right where we want to be," Ramdin said. "Bravo, Smith and Russell still have to slot in. That will give [Kieron] Pollard and [Darren] Sammy more finishing power at the end. Today, we kept losing wickets consistently. But we can take some confidence going into the next game.

"It was a very good pitch for batting [today]. With the amount of seamers we have, they came and hit the lengths and the balls carried through quite nicely. They hit a couple of edges and I did what I had to do behind - cleaning up and I got five catches. We could have bowled better with the new ball."

Ramdin starred with an industrious 102, but was unhappy he hadn't stayed at the crease long enough to finish the chase of 283. "It was a good day in terms of my glove-work and then batting and getting a good score," he said. "But I wasn't happy in terms of batting right down to the end and finishing off the game for the team."

Ramdin also praised Jason Holder and Sammy for their fifties but said the top order needed to support the middle order better. For the second match in a row, both openers fell cheaply. India A's top order, on the other hand, sparkled once again, with Unmukt Chand scoring a century and Karun Nair a brisk 64 at No. 3.

"It's very important that our batters put runs on the board," Ramdin said. "We have to get early wickets and put their middle and lower order under pressure."

Ramdin said the seamers would play a crucial role as the tour progressed, singling out Jerome Taylor as a potential trump card. He added that with Sunil Narine out, "guys would have to pull their weight more and come up with the goods."