“Every time I see Chris Gayle, I expect to see a positive Chris Gayle”
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
West Indies captain Jason Holder has backed flamboyant opener Chris Gayle to regain his touch with the bat.
In the two World Cup matches the West Indies have played thus far, Gayle has only managed to score 40 runs at a disappointing average of 20.
“Well, every time I see Chris Gayle, I expect to see a positive Chris Gayle,” Holder said. “Although he hasn’t been getting runs, we still have a lot of confidence in him. I just hope that he can come [through] tomorrow and just get us in and just take it as deep as possible for us.
“Any team would despise having Chris Gayle going guns blazing at the top. Obviously he hasn’t yet, but we still have full confidence in him.
“And it’s very good to see that he still hasn’t fired and yet we’re still getting 300 runs. I guess when his contribution comes, we’ll get somewhere close to 400 hopefully.”
When asked what he thought about former head coach Ottis Gibson’s comments about him not being ready to captain the West Indies, Holder said: “I have a decent relationship with Ottis Gibson. We got along pretty well. I respect him a lot, and I heard about his comments. I can say I’m ready. If I wasn’t ready, I probably wouldn’t accept the job. I think I can make a difference.
“It’s early days for me in captaincy in terms of this West Indies team, but I think over time once I can get my players to come together a lot more and just gel as one unit, I think we can be world beaters again.”
Holder is also brimming with confidence ahead of the West Indies’ match against Zimbabwe on Tuesday in Canberra.
“I’m very confident going forward into this game,” he said. “I think what is important is that we keep this momentum that we have going.
“I think we still have room for improvement. Obviously we can cut a few of our boundary balls when we bowl.
“I think if we can get a few more contributions going deeper into the innings in terms of the top order, I think we can get close to 350 plus, and I think that is not beyond us because of our firepower in the middle and the end.
“I think we still have to improve, too, in our fielding. I think we could be a lot sharper in the field and give a better account of ourselves.”