West Indies had beaten England in England in 2017. Although England managed to get up from that loss and win the series then, this time around in West Indies, it has been a different ball game. While England are on course to win the third Test of the series, they had been run ragged in the first two Tests by Jason Holder-led unit to claim the series, dominating the Joe Root-led side.
“When we began the series and put runs on the board, we definitely had a chance. I didn’t expect England to fall the way they did in Barbados and then in Antigua which is a tough surface. Credit, however, to our bowlers, who bowled really well and put them under pressure,” Holder told The Times of India. (READ MORE:‘Long, hard talk’ behind West Indies’ turnaround)
“We were very disciplined in our bowling. Our fast bowlers really ran in and hit the straps and then when we batted, I felt we did well. There were lots of plays and misses in this series but we stuck to our game plans and hung in as long as we possibly could to wear down the English bowlers. That, for me, was the difference,” added Holder.
Holder jumped to the top of the ICC Test rankings for all-rounders following his impressive showing in the first two Tests of the series. However, this has not been a one-off series where Holder had done well. If anything, he has been Windies’ most consistent player in the last couple of years.
“I have a lot more clarity in terms of what I want to do and what I want to achieve. I have definitely developed a bit more patience, especially in the context of Test match bowling and batting as well. Earlier in my career, I was chasing a few things and now I’ve understood that it’s a game of patience and time. I was able to sit back and analyse where I was and I felt I needed to add a bit more patience to my game,” said Holder. (ALSO READ: No real depth of top-quality, top-order batsmen in county cricket: Nasser Hussain)
When asked, whether he is best all-rounder going around, he said, “Well, statistics would show that I’m probably right up there. I’m ranked the No. 1 all-rounder in Test cricket. It was one goal to achieve and now it is to stay at the top and continue to perform for the West Indies team. Another aspiration is to be the No. 1 all-rounder in ODIs and if I get back to the T20 circuit, I would like to see myself as the No. 1 there as well.”
West Indies has long been producing some of the best pacers the world cricket has seen and when asked the whether the current lot is the best attack the Windies have had in a long time, Holder said: “That’s a difficult question, but in terms of what we’ve now got in the Caribbean and with where world cricket is, if you look at the stats of the past 18 months, I think we’re now right up there with the top pace attacks in the world. Our fast bowlers are now a lot more experienced. They’ve played quite a lot of cricket and have definitely had personal success.” (ALSO READ: West Indies have shown outstanding commitment and discipline: Mike Atherton)
The West Indian Test and ODI skipper though was cautious while discussing whether this is the resurgence of Windies cricket.
“If you look back to this team’s progress over the 18-24 months, you would have seen glimpses of brilliance. We’ve been in top ranked series and our players have had tremendous individual success. Now it’s just a matter of continuing to grow as a unit and gathering more experience and gaining knowledge and we’ll definitely see more improvement as we go up,” concluded Holder.
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