ALTHOUGH admitting the series is far from over, former West Indies pacer Ian Bishop and Sri Lankan cricket legend Kumar Sangakkara say it will be a tough task for the Caribbean side to challenge England for the remainder of their Test series, due to their struggles with the bat.

The Windies are looking to recover from their first Test innings-and-114-run loss to the hosts, which ended in just three days last week. The Kraigg Braithwaite-led side failed twice with the bat after scoring 121 and 136, with only three batsmen getting into double figures over the two innings. England bowler Gus Atkinson, in his debut, took a match haul of 12 wickets while Jimmy Anderson ended his Test career with four wickets.

The second Test bowls off on Thursday at Trent Bridge, and while Bishop says there’s potential in the team he says he’s not overly confident that they can make the quick turnaround against one of the world’s best teams.

“West Indians at home are going out of their skin because the team did not go past 150 or something in two innings,” he said. “It did not surprise me. It’s very difficult to come here as a young batter, and I’ve always felt most West Indians who’ve come here [in England] on their first tour as batters have struggled.

“Mikyle Louis, I think, looks as though he has the goods; Alick Athanaze looks as though he has the goods — as Shai Hope looked as though he had the goods with those two twin centuries — [but] how do we mature them? How do we procure them? Because the talent is there but the burning thing we have not touched on is: ‘How do we take them from potentially good to world-class?’ ”

Former Sri Lanka Captain and Jamaica Tallawahs star Sangakarra says the batsmen need to have a better understanding of their approach. This, he says, would make a significant difference.

“If you’re the batting unit, the first thing is: ‘How do we get to 300?’ he posited. ‘How do we break it down? What do we do? How does our team bat?’ You have Kraigg Brathwaite who’s very attritional in his approach, takes a long time; Mikyle Louis, I really like what he has — a foundation, technically he’s very good — but now how do you expand from there to score the runs?

“The West Indies are so talented — all the batters. We’ve seen that when they’re on a roll, and in rhythm, and spend the time [at the crease] — how free scoring they can be — but they need to be unafraid and very decisive in attack, score runs. They have enough skill in their bowling attack but if they want the bowling attack to flourish and impact the game, the batters have to give them something to play for. Don’t think of 500, time, and batting two days — or anything. [Think instead about]: ‘How many runs can we actually score and how much do we need to challenge England?’ ”

Bishop says every player will need to contribute to the score, adding that no one should be burdened with making a big score.

“When they won in Brisbane it was still too early for one batter to dominate because they don’t have a world-class batter there yet,” he said. “It was Joshua Da Silva, half-century; Kavem Hodge, half-century; Kevin Sinclair half-century, and when they go 300, they put Australia under pressure.

“At this stage of their development, unless it’s Kraigg Brathwaite and Jason Holder who scored hundreds in this format before, it’s guys chipping in and building, everyone from the top to Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales.”