Jason Holder has played down the prospect of “big name” West Indies players re-joining the Test team, stating “we have the best of the lot right now.”
With Cricket West Indies having recently relaxed their selection criteria and offered an amnesty to those players who have chosen to play in T20 leagues, it had been presumed the likes of Sunil Narine, Darren Bravo, Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard (who has never played Test cricket) might come into consideration ahead of series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.
But Holder, West Indies’ captain, suggested that, apart from Bravo and perhaps Gayle, he “didn’t think there’s anybody interested in playing Test cricket that we can call upon.”
“Darren Bravo is a guy who has done well for us in the recent past,” Holder said. “But apart from Darren I don’t think there’s anybody else who’s interested in playing Test cricket that we can really call upon or the so-called big names people are looking for.
“Chris has probably hinted that he would like to play if he’s fit enough. He’s always said he would like to play. I spoke to him a while back. We would love to have a guy like Chris in our side. He brings a lot.
“But apart from those two players I don’t think there’s anybody else we can really look to.”
While Bravo’s return would appear close to automatic – Kyle Hope failed to take his chance in England, averaging just 6.83 batting at No. 3 in the series – Holder described himself as “extremely proud” of the performance of his young team and hinted that he would be reluctant to see too many of them replaced. Shane Dowrich, who averaged 4.80 and struggled with the gloves, might also come under pressure from the likes of Denesh Ramdin.
“I think we’ve got the best of the lot [playing] right now,” he said. “I’m really, really happy with this squad to be honest. I enjoy playing cricket with this squad and I enjoy leading this squad. I wouldn’t trade this squad for the world.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo