Captain’s log

Jason Holder says he is enjoying his role as captain of the West Indies Test and One Day International teams, even though the regional side has not been reaping overwhelming success under his leadership.

Speaking yesterday to Barbados TODAY, Harris noted that though it was a challenging position, he expected his job to get easier once on-field performances continued to show improvement.

“I enjoy my role as captain. I have been in the job for a while now and I have become accustomed to most of if not all of the things that go with it. It is always a challenge with sometimes different obstacles in the way. The job of captain is something I have grown into a little bit more.  I have received lots of support from team-mates and the management staff has done as much as they can. The key to it all is we as a team improving on the field. If we can improve our on-the-field performances it will make my job as captain a hell of a lot more easier than it is now. It is my intention to keep growing with the team as we keep on trying to improve as a unit,” Holder said during a break from a net session with the Barbados Tridents.

Holder, who missed the West Indies tour to Bangladesh at the end of last year because of a shoulder injury, said he was fully recovered.

“I had some time off from cricket to correct the problem I had with my shoulder. I spent a month in England getting some rehabilitation work done on my shoulder which went well. I am playing in the match against the Guyana Jaguars on Friday to find out how strong my body is and trying to see if I can improve and go from strength to strength, but I feel fine,” Holder said.

Holder had an outstanding year in international cricket in 2018. In six Tests he took 33 wickets at the impressive average of 12.39, which included four five-wicket hauls in successive matches. Holder also scored 336 runs including two half-centuries at an average 37.33. In ODIs, he dismissed 21 batsmen at an average of 33.75 and accumulated 405 runs at 33.75.

Holder attributed his remarkable performance with the ball in 2018 to him being a lot more patient than he was previously.

“I just believe I was more so a lot more patient than before. I was able to settle down a lot more when I was bowling and try to be a lot more patient than I was in the past. One of the things that I really focused on was consistency. I always had the skill to move the ball both ways in and out. In my view, one of my downfalls as a bowler was that I experimented a bit too early and too much. Last year, I was more patient, therefore I began stringing together a lot more spells consistently and performing my role as a bowler more effectively. I have always been regarded as the workhorse in the team who can come on and bowl long spells. The only way a bowler can bowl long spells is to keep his economy rate down and be tidy and pick up wickets along the way. I was successful in doing so last year,” he stated.

On the question of him being a batting all-rounder, captain Holder said he would have liked to score more but based on the position he bats his output was reasonable.

“I probably would have liked a few more runs but I guess in situations where I batted I performed reasonably well. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. I believe that I can contribute a lot more with the bat, converting is something that has been at the back of my mind. I got a lot of starts and a few half centuries, a couple of the times I might have run out of partners but there were occasions when I should have batted on longer and get a bigger score,” Holder said.

Holder who finished 2018 as the number 2 all-rounder in the world on the International Cricket Council’s Test rankings behind Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan said he was really looking forward to playing cricket in 2019.

“It is really a year that I am looking forward to, after doing fairly well last year. It has been drawn to my attention that I was ranked as the number two all-rounder in the world in Test cricket by the ICC. This year I will be working very hard to be the number one all-rounder in the world. I have to be consistent; consistency is something I always preach in the dressing room. As a leader, I got to lead by example and one of the things I try to strive for is consistency whether it is with the ball in hand or bat. My big hope is that I can create the energy for the team to feed off of and together we will bring pride and joy to the people of the region,” the skipper said.