'We need to be street-wise against spinners' - Gibson

Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, has blamed the team's batting for the debacle in the first two matches of the ODI series. West Indies are down 0-2 in the series, and are waiting for their batsmen to get it right against Bangladesh's spinners in the third game or risk conceding the series after being dominant in the Tests.

"Bangladesh has had it easy because we gave our wickets away," Gibson said. "If we pay a little bit more attention we could be more street-wise against their spinners. If we put on a good score tomorrow [Wednesday], I will still back our bowlers to defend a score."

"Bangladesh are an improving one-day unit and it wasn't easy to win [the ODI series] last year either. We just haven't produced the quality that we expect from ourselves in this series, and that has to start from tomorrow. We have to produce what we did against New Zealand which was outstanding."

Gibson also defended the composition of the team - West Indies played four allrounders in the second ODI - pointing out that ultimately, it was the top order's responsibility to lay a base for the big-hitters lower down the order. Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo haven't quite done that so far and have managed only 99 runs between the four of them in the first two games. That has put pressure on the likes of Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell, who have been left to do the recovery task, which they too have failed to do.

"We have played with a lot of allrounders this year. They have been successful so when you start to lose, people will say that. It is pretty much the same team that won us the series against New Zealand 4-1.

"The top order led by Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels - they got most of the runs, batted most of the overs. The allrounders were still able to make contributions in the back-end. Our top order hasn't laid any foundations with any significant scores," he said.

West Indies didn't leave the team hotel in central Dhaka for training at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday, after a political party called a day-long strike in the country. Gibson said that during this downtime, the team has regrouped, particularly the batsmen who held a meeting to open up about their poor performance in the Khulna ODIs.

"We had a full gym programme today, and yesterday afternoon we have had a very strategic batting meeting about the way we played so far. It was a very honest discussion. I think everyone understands our batsmen need to take more responsibility."

But Gibson was frustrated by what has transpired so far in the one-day series. West Indies are yet to cross the 200-run mark and none of their batsmen have managed a single fifty so far. This despite the dominance they have had in the two Test matches and their impressive run since August this year when they swept aside New Zealand at home and won the World Twenty20s.

"I am very disappointed. Having done so well in the Test matches, you want to finish this tour and this year on a positive note. We have just not batted like we know we can bat.

"We bowled well in spells but the bowlers have not been as consistent as they have been recently. There's a lot of room for improvement in all three departments."

Gibson said he was also looking forward to see his batsmen go back to basics and take up a lot more responsibility than they have so far in the series. He was particularly bothered with them getting bowled out so early in the second ODI, giving Bangladesh a massive 160-run win.

"A team doesn't become bad and neither is it all doom and gloom for me. We haven't been able to string together a good batting display so far. Getting bowled out for 17-18 overs to spare is very disappointing so hopefully they can bat most of the overs."