HOBART, Australia, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder has rubbished media reports claiming that new-ball bowlers Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach refused to bowl from certain ends during the opening Test in Hobart.
Reports said Taylor and Roach told Holder they would not bowl from the Derwent River southern end on Thursday’s opening day at Bellerive Oval, leaving the young skipper with little or no options as Australia’s batsmen dominated.
West Indies captain Jason efused to bowl from certain ends during the first Test in Hobart.
However, Holder refuted these claims, pointing out he had taken the decision to rotate the faster bowlers from the opposite end because of the difficulty of running into the wind while operating from the southern end.
“I saw some comments made [in the media after] I had a conversation with Tom Moody (media pundit) after the first day’s play about bowlers reluctant to bowl from a particular end,” Holder told media here.
“That wasn’t the case. The case was basically that the fast bowlers struggled from the bottom end coming into the wind and I just felt it easier to rotate them at the top end coming down the slope.
“Obviously after losing Shannon (Gabriel) we were a bowler short so it was easier to rotate the three fast bowlers from the top.”
Holder said his side’s slow over-rate also became a consideration as West Indies were also lagging far behind the required pace at one point.
The Caribbean side were eventually fined by ICC match referee Chris Broad for being three overs short of their target.
“We were always behind the eight-ball because of our over-rate. We had to speed up. At one stage we were down six overs and that was due to the fact the ball just kept going around the park,” Holder further explained.
“It was not a situation where people were reluctant to bowl, it was never that case. I just felt best to rotate the fast bowlers from that end coming down the slope.”
Australia piled up 438 for three on the opening day with Adam Voges and Shaun Marsh gathering hundreds, before declaring on day two at 583 for four.
West Indies were dismissed for 223 and 148 to lose by an innings and 212 runs and fall 0-1 behind in the three-Test series.
Holder said improvement among the bowlers was imperative.
“We need to find ways to get into our rhythm. We struggled basically to string good deliveries [together] in any certain spell for long periods of time.”
The second Test bowls off in Melbourne on Boxing Day.
