Hobart [Australia], October 18 (ANI): West Indies coach Phil Simmons said that the batters should step up after West Indies succumbed to a 42-run loss against Scotland in their opening match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup on Monday.

Scotland was held to 160/5 by the West Indies bowlers, who did a commendable job on a surface that appeared favourable for batting. Alzarri Joseph and Jason Holder, two pacers, excelled with the ball, taking two wickets each while also demonstrating excellent economy.

The hitters, on the other hand, fell short of the mark, losing half of their side for just 69 runs. Holder made a valiant effort to save their innings with his 33-ball 38, but finally, the Caribbean team was bowled out for 118 with nine balls remaining.

West Indies' coach Simmons opined that their bowlers worked hard but the batters let the team down in the post-match press conference.

"I think the only way you can look at it is - disappointed. I think our batting, at least today, definitely was a bit unprofessional. And we need to wake up and start being as professional as we can be when we are batting. The bowlers seem to be working hard and putting us in good positions, but the batters continue to falter," Simmons said in a post-match press conference.

"I think it's just too many soft dismissals. I think as batsmen you have to pay a lot more attention to your wicket. And I think every time, we play we are up there with the run rate. It doesn't matter who we are playing against, but we keep losing wickets and soft wickets. So I think that I've been trying to remedy it for the last couple of months. Doesn't seem like it's there yet," he added.

West Indies coach went on to say that the batters were poor with their shot choices in the match and they didn't play according to the condition at all.

"You summed it up there [when asked if shot selection was poor]. You don't need me to answer it. And that's exactly it. You've got to sum up the situation and play to the situation of the game. I don't think we did that at all times today. As I said before, the bowlers have been doing an excellent job. We've been doing very well for the last year. So for them to pull it back after that was expected from us. So I think they did a great job," said the West Indies coach.

"We need to beat Zimbabwe. I think that's the first step as we go along. When we get back here at this time on Wednesday, then we may be thinking a lot different on all those things you spoke about," he added. (ANI)