Lack of consistency cost us: Jason Holder

After the defeat at the hands of India in both the series and the Test match, West Indies skipper Jason Holder lamented his side’s poor performance and blamed the lack of consistency for the same. Moreover, the fact that they shot themselves in the foot on two occasions was also something that did not go down well with the team management.

The West Indies failed to clinch a win in the series, the Indians are now on the brink of an unprecedented clean sweep, something that they seldom achieved when the West Indies were in their prime. Jason Holder said that although it was indeed an honor and privilege to play Test cricket for the West Indies, the 24-year old skipper of the Windies said that the domestic scenario was something different from what they had on the international circuit.

“It is going to be difficult. Test match cricket is very different from our first-class cricket at this point in time. I have had the privilege to play first-class cricket and I’ve also had the privilege to play Test cricket and I can see a vast disparity between the two. It is a situation where many of us coming to international cricket and are trying to learn on our job. It is definitely not easy, but it is something that we are faced with and I hope the guys can learn quickly.”

Adding from what he had previously said, Holder hoped that the board would want to invest in players who could provide at least 5-10 years of cricket for the West Indies. “Hope that our guys’ bodies are accustomed to the workloads of international cricket because it is far different from first-class cricket. For instance, you get a first-class game where a fast bowler hardly bowls a number of overs we have bowled in this series. For the last 5-10 years, we have had spinners dominating first-class cricket in terms of wickets taken. So it is a transition that we have to try to open up and adjust to as quickly as possible. It is by no means easy and sometimes we don’t make it easy for ourselves.”

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Speaking about the impact made by the batsmen, Holder said that they had to pull up their socks if they ever needed to stake their claim with the big guns in the future. “I think the difference from here to Jamaica is that we also spent time but we didn’t score. I think most of the batsmen have spent some time initially but they haven’t ticked over the scoreboard as well as we would like. I can’t speak for every batsman and it is a situation where each batsman needs to cope, how we are going to score and how we are going to occupy the crease. So sitting here is difficult to answer but all I can say is that the responsibility is on the batsmen at the present time.”

“When you look back, in the first innings, we’re in a very good position at one stage in terms of our bowling performance. But Ashwin-Saha stuck in, luck went their way, had a few questionable calls, fifty-fifty ones which went their way. From there, they were able to get a reasonable first innings total. When we came out to bat, we’re obviously in a good position, but lost our way in the middle. We haven’t been able to put up reasonable first innings totals which have hampered us in the recent past. If you don’t put up a good first innings total, they you are chasing the game. We need to knuckle down as batsmen, we need to be accountable for our actions.”

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