Jason Holder snubs Rohit Sharma as he picks his 5 best Indian players of all time

West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder in a recent interview, was asked to choose his top 5 favorite Indian cricketers of all time. His top two were without any shocks, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, the most intriguing and questionable part was that he left out Indian skipper Rohit Sharma who is currently on duty against England for the 4th of a 5-match Test series, entirely from his top 5 list.

Jason Holder who is himself known for snubbing Test cricket for the West Indies to pocked big money deals from top franchise leagues around the world, placed former Test specialists Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman at number 3 and 4 while Ravichandran Ashwin who completed 500 Test wickets just a week ago, was placed 5th.

Jason Holder leaves out Rohit Sharma

If we talk in terms of patriotism or national team sentiment then Jason Holder doesn’t even have a percentage of what Rohit Sharma has, especially in the longest format of the game. Yes, the Windies Cricket Board indeed makes a lot less money than the BCCI does but cash matters the least when it comes to representing your nation in the oldest format of cricket.

If it was exactly the case, then the West Indies wouldn’t have returned from Australia last month with a first Test win in 27 years at the iconic Gabba stadium in Brisbane and we could not have witnessed the unfolding of pacer Shamar Joseph who worked as a security personnel only for cash but prioritized Test cricket despite being a newbie.

Jason Holder must learn a lesson from Joseph himself that not always do you have to prioritize filling up your pocket for a good living and that franchise cricket which runs throughout the year in different parts of the world doesn’t buy you the amount of happiness that winning for your nation does.

It is at times shocking to see someone like Joseph who has registered 157 wickets from 64 Test matches for the Windies, snub a high-profile series against Australia which eventually proved to be the major talking point in the cricketing fraternity last month.

Jason Holder who is currently on duty for the Khulna Tigers in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League season, also had a reason for missing the Test series. At that time he felt like playing in the International League T20 in UAE would prove to be much more beneficial in his preparation for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on home soil and USA from June onwards.

Holder pays his respect to Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli

Jason Holder would be sparred for leaving out Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni as well for the fact that he included two of the highly acclaimed cricketers of all time – Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. The duo share 99 ODI centuries between them and it’s good that Holder at least paid his respect to those two legendary figures.

Meanwhile, Holder will be in action for the West Indies when the T20 World Cup starts from June 1 onwards. The co-hosts will kick off their T20 WC campaign from June 2nd onwards against Papua New Guinea at the Providence stadium.