Jason Holder confirmed that Chris Gayle and Darren Bravo are interested in playing Test cricket again
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West Indies captain Jason Holder has revealed that opener Chris Gayle and batsman Darren Bravo have both expressed interest in returning to the Test squad.
While Gayle and Bravo would bolster the West Indies’ batting line-up and provide the team with some much-needed experience, Holder added that no other high-profile player showed any interest in featuring in the longest format.
Bravo, whose last Test match came in November 2016, recently resolved his dispute with Cricket West Indies president Dave Cameron, while Gayle has not played Test cricket September 2014 due to the board’s selection criteria.
However, with Cricket West Indies offering an amnesty in the wake of a number of disappointing performances, it seems that the West Indies could be on track to recall a plethora of big-name players for their upcoming series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.
“Darren Bravo is a guy who has done well for us in the recent past,” Holder was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. “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.”
Holder’s comments come after the West Indies lost 2-1 in their three-Test series against England. Despite tasting defeat yet again, the 25-year-old heaped praise on his side for beating England in the second Test at Headingley, which was the West Indies’ first Test win in England since 2000.
“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.
“I’m extremely proud, can’t really fault the guys for effort. We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement, still got a long way to go before we can get consistent performances. That said, not a bad tour of England, could have been better, obviously, but I’m still very proud.
“The credit must go to the bowlers. After the Headingley Test match we asked for another big effort. The way we came out here first innings and bowled, I think at the start of the match if you said we’d have got England for 190, we’d have taken that.”
With the West Indies playing Zimbabwe and New Zealand next, Holder wants his side to show the same kind of grit and determination they did in their victory at Headingley.
“For a first tour here for many of us, I still think it’s a hell of an achievement and fight we put up,” Holder said. “Hopefully we can learn from this, we have New Zealand at the end of the year which could be similar conditions and similar type of bowlers, so it should be good chance to take what we’ve learned here into that series. But first we’ve got Zimbabwe, in a few weeks time, so hopefully we can really kick on from there.
“Obviously Shai was outstanding in this entire series and we must not forget Kraigg’s contribution as well, he really did a hell of a job, especially at Headingley. Unfortunately we didn’t get more batsmen to carry on, lots of us got starts but didn’t carry on, and we let ourselves down with our fielding, probably this entire series. We dropped quite a few chances and gave good players two opportunities to bat, and in international cricket they’ll make you pay for it.
“I think we’ve shown improvement. When we sit down and critique each series, we just try to look for improvement. We’ve definitely shown that, especially in our bowling, improving our consistency there … But hopefully guys can gain a lot of confidence form this series against a world-class side and top-class bowling unit. To be able to achieve something in this series speaks a lot.”