Seales grateful for Antigua pitch experience

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Rookie West Indies seamer Jayden Seales believes the flat surface for the opening Test in Antigua last week proved a learning curve in his fledgling career.

The 20-year-old was part of a four-pronged West Indies pace attack which toiled with little assistance from the unresponsive pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, as the contest against England ended in a draw.

Seales, who made his Test debut last year, snatched four first innings wickets but went without success in the second innings as England piled up 349 for six declared.

"I am pleased [with my performance] but I know I could've done a lot better," Seales said.

"The pitch was not the easiest to bowl on. You always had to put in a lot of effort, always had to run in [and] use the wicket as much as possible. It was a good [game] to experience and I'm looking to learn from it.

"[I have to] bowl straighter [in the future], take away width from the batsman, try to bring the stumps in play as much as possible from that kind of four to five metre length - just bringing [batsmen] forward as much as possible."

With frontline speedster Shannon Gabriel overlooked for the recent Test, Seales shared the new ball with veteran seamer Kemar Roach - a role he also performed during last year's two-Test series against Pakistan in the Caribbean.

However, with just five Tests under his belt, Seales said critical improvements were still needed when bowling the new ball.

"For me, it is about being a little more consistent with the new ball. I think at times I bowl a bit too wide and a bit too short," he said.

"So I think it's just for me to get closer to the batsmen, try to make them play as much balls as possible because batsmen coming into bat against the new ball want to leave as much as possible. I think that is one thing I can take forward."