GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder has taken a swipe at his batsmen after his side crashed to a humiliating 237-run defeat against India in the third Test here on Saturday.
Facing a victory target of 345 after India declared nearly an hour into the morning session; West Indies imploded for 108 in about two sessions to hand India the series at the Darren Sammy National Stadium.
India now lead two games to nothing with the final Test scheduled to start on Thursday.
“We haven’t been able to put up reasonable first-innings totals which have hampered us in the recent past. If you don’t put up a good first-innings total, then you are chasing the game,” Holder said.
“We need to knuckle down. As batsmen, we need to be accountable for our actions. At the top, predominantly, we haven’t been consistent; not getting starts we’ve been looking for.”
Left-hander Darren Bravo top-scored with 59 but was one of only three frontline batsmen to reach double figures and the only one to pass 12, in a humiliating display.
In the first innings, the home side was bowled out for 225 after being placed at 202 for 3.
The young Windies skipper says his batsmen were overly cautious and failed to learn from flaws in the first innings.
“I think the difference from here to Jamaica is that we also spent time but we didn’t score. I think most of the batsmen have spent some time initially but they haven’t tick over the scoreboard as well as we would like,” Holder said.
“I can’t speak for every batsman and it is a situation where each batsman needs to cope, how we are going to score and how we are going to occupy the crease. So sitting here is difficult to answer but all I can say is that the responsibility is on the batsmen at the present time.”
Holder has also lamented what he termed a disparity between first class cricket in the region and Test cricket.
“It is a situation where many of us coming to international cricket and are trying to learn on our job. It is far different from first-class cricket,” he said.
“For instance you get a first-class game where a fast bowler hardly bowls the amount of overs we have bowled in this series. For the last five to 10 years we have had spinners dominating first-class cricket in terms of wickets taken. So it is a transition that we have to try to open up and adjust to as quickly as possible”.
