The Barbados Surface Truly Has a Caribbean Flavour to It - Jason Holder

Windies is making their preparations for the third and final Test against Sri Lanka at Barbados. It will be a day-night affair. However, Windies have a good record at the Kensington Oval in the recent past. They have beaten Pakistan and England in the last two Tests. Skipper Jason Holder is of the opinion that the pitch is “truly Caribbean”.

“The pitch is very truly Caribbean,” Holder said on the eve of the Test on Friday (June 22) in a Windies Cricket Board release.

Windies came from behind to win the last two Tests against England and Pakistan. They had conceded the first innings lead and with the current series standing 1-0.

Furthermore, Holder has urged for more consistency from his team. Windies will surely look to win the series.

And the last two pitches here in Kensington Oval in Test matches deteriorated quite quickly. This pitch seems to have a lot more grass cover on it, it should be a really good Test match. The ground looks in pretty good shape, the best I’ve seen in a long time,” Holder said.

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“I try to get the guys to focus on the process, we’ve got to know what we need to do in order to win a Test match,” Holder said.

“We’ve got to do small things over a long period of time, our bowlers have got to be a lot more consistent, our batsmen convert most of the starts we’ve been getting. I think the guys are really up for the occasion and everybody knows what’s at stake,” Holder maintained.

“We’re playing some really good cricket in the series. Individual performances have really stood out, and we really came together as a side. The first Test match was obviously exceptional, probably we were not at our best in our last Test match in St Lucia,” Holder remarked.

The bowlers have been quite impressive in the series so far. However, their batsmen have let them down. Till now there has been only one century in the series by Shane Dowrich.

In addition, it was in the last series against New Zealand that Kraigg Brathwaite’s 91 was the highest score for the Windies in the two matches.

The area of concern for Windies:

“Yeah, it’s obviously an area of concern for us,” the skipper acknowledged.

“We’ve had a number of starts over the last couple of Test series but the batsmen haven’t been able to carry on. I just think it’s matter for us to focus on every particular delivery, not get too far ahead. I always stress on the process and we need to be playing ball by ball and not looking too far ahead down the line,” Holder concluded.

Jason Holder believes hard work from players would pave a way to success:

“Obviously, once you get those starts, it’s about focusing a little bit harder on those twenties and thirties and push past the landmark and hopefully take it really big,” Holder concluded.

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