West Indies play their first Test match against England at Edgbaston. (Source: Reuters)
West Indies are set to begin their three-match Test series against England at Edgbaston on Thursday. This would be the first day-night Test match which will be played in England and is also the first one for the home side. While Joe Root’s England will feature in maiden day-night Test, West Indies have already played one pink-ball Test previously. However, they lost that particular encounter.
In a report by cricket.com.au, West Indies captain Jason Holder has said that it has been their bowling which has carried them through in the last few Test matches. “I think our bowling has really carried us throughout the last few Test matches,” said Holder and added, “Shannon Gabriel has had a pretty decent year; I haven’t been doing too badly, and we’ve got young Alzarri Joseph and Miguel Cummins. Kemar Roach is actually showing some very, very good form – so I’m really confident in our bowling.”
Holder added that hosts England would come “pretty hard” and he wants his side to go back at them in the same way. “I don’t think there’s anything to spark that,” said Holder. “But we expect a good contest … the English come pretty hard, and we expect to go back just as hard at them,” insisted the skipper. “We’re obviously huge underdogs. We’ve got guys who are showing signs they can compete at Test level,” he said.
Talking about England, Holder suggested that they would be looking to create some extra pressure on the hosts to get some fruitful results.
“I think for us, it’s mainly just to make it as uncomfortable as possible for their senior players … and put some pressure on the junior guys who are coming in to make their mark,” said Holder.
Mentioning about the struggle that the West Indies batsmen have been facing, the Caribbean team slipper admitted that the batsmen need to chip in with some runs in order to produce some good results.
“It’s just for our batsmen to make some runs,” said Holder. “We’ve struggled in the past, primarily with our batting, but so far on this tour we’ve been doing really well,” added the captain.
