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Jason Holder Expects His Side to Finish Fourth or Fifth in WTC
By Shruti - Nov 30, 2019 9:23 pm
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West Indies Test captain Jason Holder expects West Indies to finish fourth or fifth in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship. Having defeated Afghanistan by nine wickets, Holder saw the potential in his side to continue their winning momentum in future.

Jason Holder
Jason Holder

“I think by the end of the Test Championship, I don’t see it being impossible for us to be fourth or fifth in the world,” Holder said.

“That would be a significant achievement in a two-year period. We’ve got some tough series coming up: we’ve got England, then South Africa coming to the Caribbean, then we’ve got New Zealand – all good cricket sides. But I don’t think it’s beyond us to beat them. We’ve just got to make sure we keep building and developing. Once we do that, we can compete with any side in the world. A realistic target in two years would be to be ranked three or four in the world,” he added.

While talking about the win against Afghanistan, Jason Holder said he was happy to take the unusual decision of fielding after winning the toss.

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“I don’t regret the decision at the toss. In the end, we played a really good cricket game, and we were clinical,” he said. “I asked the guys to make sure we don’t leave any stones unturned. Probably would have liked a little bit more in our first innings in terms of our batting, but having said that, we had a lead of 90. I think leads win games. Once you have a hefty lead, it puts pressure on the opposition.”

Holder
Jason Holder

Holder praised the batsmen to be consistent, saying West Indies can win the games only if the batsmen back the bowlers.

“I’ve said it in the last couple of series we’ve played: more responsibility needs to be taken by our batters. Once they do that and take the bull by the horns, I think our bowling attack has shown it can compete with any attack in the world. We’ve shown glimpses of brilliance, which is all well and good, but consistency is the name of the game,” he shared.

“In order to be a world-class team, you have to be consistent with your batting. You have to get 20 wickets of course, but you have to set it up with the bat. First innings count for a lot. If we can put teams under pressure with our first-innings scores, more often than not, West Indies will be up there among the top-ranked sides in the world,” Jason Holder concluded.