BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Captain Jason Holder has urged patience with an inexperienced West Indies side, saying they had already shown plenty of promise and would eventually convert their potential into results.
He was speaking ahead of today’s third and final One-Day International here which the hosts need to win in order to avoid another series whitewash.
They suffered that fate at the hands of Pakistan in a similar three-match series last October and have now won just one of their last nine one-dayers.
“It’s important that we bear with them a bit but it is important that we learn as quickly as possible,” Holder told a media conference here yesterday.
“Obviously the patience is running out with the public and a lot of people but at the end of the day, we’re still human beings, very young on the international circuit and it’s just important for us to learn as quickly as possible so we can get into international cricket and compete a lot better.
“We’ve done a lot of good things, not only on this tour but we’ve done a lot of good things in the past. It’s just a situation where we need to string it together collectively.”
Holder, with 51 ODIs, is the most experienced player in the side that boasts an average age of 26.
The Windies have felt the weight of the inexperience especially in their batting where of the top five, only left-hander Jonathan Carter has played more than 10 ODIs with 19.
The remaining four – openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Evin Lewis along with Shai Hope and Jason Mohammed – have played just 24 ODIs combined.
Pointing to the batting, Holder said team management had continually stressed the importance of taking responsibility for the innings. “Obviously in cricket, you get in and some people get out. Good players cash in when they get in and we are trying to convert our good players to great players,” he explained.
“We need to make sure the batsmen knuckle down when they’ve gotten a start and carry on for the team. We need one of our top four batsmen to go through and score a hundred; that’s something we always preach in the dressing room but we haven’t gotten it yet.
“Hopefully going into this last game we can get that.” Despite the recent poor form, Holder said he had been “encouraged” by performances on the Tri-Nations Series in Zimbabwe involving Sri Lanka and the hosts.
West Indies started strongly by winning their first game but then tied one and lost two of the last three, to miss out on the final. “I was encouraged by our last tour of Zimbabwe. I felt that we did a lot of good things there. It’s just a situation for us to string it all together.”
