Jason Holder optimistic on having Chris Gayle back in the Test side

In what was a hard fought series between the Windies and England, the hosts managed to win the series deciding third Test at Lord’s and take the honours 2-1. While the Caribbeans may have lost, they had too much of positives to take from the three match series.

After an innings defeat in the day-night Test at Birmingham, the Windies side displayed some great valour in chasing 300 plus on the final day of the Leeds Test to level the series. The way Shai Hope led the batting honours for the Windies instilled a faith of confidence in the team.

Kraig Brathwaite was also splendid with the bat while Kemar Roach was stupendous with his bowling. West Indian skipper Jason Holder spoke about how the series was beneficial from the Windies perspective, Chris Gayle and more.

On Gayle’s possible return to the Test team

After Cricket West Indies (CWI) relaxed the restrictions on players who preferred T20 leagues over domestic competition, there has been hope for players like Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine, etc to make a return to the fold. However, Holder was of the opinion that he would rather have Gayle in the squad.

“Chris has probably hinted that he would like to play if he’s fit enough. He’s always said he would like to play. I spoke to him a while back. We would love to have a guy like Chris in our side. He brings a lot,” Holder said.

He felt that the team didn’t quite put up a determined show in the second innings of the Lord’s Test as it was only one man Shai Hope who challenged the otherwise unplayable James Anderson & Co.

“In the second innings we didn’t bat as well as we would have liked,” said West Indies captain Jason Holder. “But Shai Hope batted extremely well and we have a lot of positives to take,” added the all-rounder.

Anderson completed 500 Test wickets in the second innings and thereafter just ran through the Windies batting with an eventual 7-wicket haul. He concluded the match with 506 wickets to his name and rewrote his career best figures in Tests as well.

“Credit must go to James Anderson. He is a world-class bowler and I’d like to congratulate him on 500 wickets, but I want to urge our guys to keep going,” Holder stated.