BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Selectors will be monitoring the workload of premier all-rounder, Jason Holder, especially with the 29-year-old heavily involved in all three formats for West Indies.
Last week, he was the only player to be rewarded with an all-formats contract, a reflection of the Barbadian’s performance over the last year in all three versions of the game.
However, chief selector Roger Harper reiterated that while Holder was key for the Caribbean side, his panel was keen on avoiding burnout.
“It’s something we’ve already been looking at and trying to plan ahead in discussion with the player as well,” Harper said.
“We have a packed schedule this year for the remainder of the year so it is something that we will certainly take into consideration as we go ahead.”
Holder, an accomplished lower order batsman and seamer, has made his name in Tests where he currently sits on top of the all-rounders rankings, averaging 33 with the bat and 27 with the ball.
While still captain, he featured in all five Tests last year on tours of England and New Zealand but opted out of the series in Bangladesh last February before returning for the rubber against Sri Lanka in the Caribbean a month later.
He has also played a steady diet of One-Day Internationals accumulating 118 to his name and recently returned to the Twenty20 side for the Sri Lanka series.
However, Harper admitted that resting players in the COVID-19 environment came with challenges, especially with series being staged in bio-secure bubbles and with international travel now hampered by quarantine regulations.
“You have to understand as well we’re in a situation here in COVID times [where] it’s not easy for rest to be allocated … and if there is rest then it still probably has to be within the bubble because travel is not an easy thing,” he explained.
“Travel doesn’t just mean flying somewhere, it means probably quarantining when you come in and whenever you’re going back to wherever you’re going back to, and then to come back and quarantine again.
“So a lot of careful thought and planning has to be put into this. It’s something we have marked as a priority and we’re looking at it.”
Holder led West Indies in 37 of his 47 Tests, winning 11, losing 21 and drawing five games, before he was sacked last March and replaced by fellow Barbadian Kraigg Brathwaite.
He also undertook the burden of ODI skipper for 4-½ years and led the regional side to the World Cup in 2019 before being relieved of his duties later that year.
