BRIDGETOWN, June 17: West Indies need to emulate Australia’s mental toughness and ruthless approach if they are to progress to the next level, Shivnarine Chanderpaul said after his side lost the third Test on Monday.

Chanderpaul said West Indies had progressed throughout the series but there were lessons to be learnt from Australia.

“Obviously the toughness, the way the Aussies play their cricket. They have the killer instinct, going out there and wanting to finish the job,” he told reporters.

“What we can learn from this series is that you go out there and never give up, you play all the way, you fight all the way, and as a young team you can carry on and work on making yourself better,” added the left-hander who scored two centuries.

The Guyanese batsman, who at 33 is the elder statesman of the squad, said the lack of experience in the side made it harder for new players to adapt to Test cricket.

“It’s kind of a little hard because we have a bunch of young fellas, they’re learning but they’re learning slowly.

“When I came into the team we had a bunch of senior fellas around who played their cricket and played tough. So it was easy for me to learn from them but we have a whole heap of young fellas and it’s going to be difficult.

“We’re trying to mould them and they’re learning, but learning slowly and at this level you have to learn fast.”

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting said he was impressed with the steps made by West Indies and there was little missing from the team in terms of talent.

“I don’t think there’s too much missing. Their bowling attack is pretty good at the moment. Their quicks did a good job through the series.

“Dwayne Bravo is a world-class all-rounder, they had Chris Gayle out for the majority of this series. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul are obviously terrific players.

“I think West Indies are probably a little bit like some other sides around the world, if they just have a couple of injuries they don’t tend to have the depth of maybe Australia or a South Africa. That would be the only thing that they lack.”—Reuters