Following the ten-wicket defeat in the second Test against India, West Indies captain Jason Holder conceded that the embarrassing back-to-back three-day defeats are “difficult to digest”.
West Indies’ miseries in India continued. Red-hot India blew them away in three days to take the two-match series 2-0. The latest defeat was West Indies’ fourth straight three-day defeat in India. Unlike the first Test, West Indies, buoyed by the return of their skipper Jason Holder, managed to give the hosts a good challenge but eventually perished to lose the game by 10 wickets. In the series-opener, they managed to score just 181 and 196 in reply to India’s 649 to lose the game by an innings and 272 runs.
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However, they came up with an improved show in the second Test. In fact, they had their fare share of chances putting India under pressure but tailed to pounce on them. Riding on Roston Chase’s century, they scored 311 in the first innings. In reply, India were bowled out for 367 despite starting day three on 308 for 4.
Openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Kieran Powell were both out for a duck in the second innings. The start was the precursor of the things that were to follow as West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals and were all out for just 127, thus setting India a meagre target of 72. KL Rahul and Prithvi Shaw then both finished unbeaten on 33 as India eased to victory.
Speaking after the game, Jason Holder expressed his disappointment over the heavy loss.
“Honestly, it’s hard to take it. I am trying to understand the reasons why it is happening. It’s a case where we all need to put our heads together — the management, the selectors and the players. The onus must be on the players and we must be responsible for our actions,” said Holder.
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“We got to come together a little bit more and find ways and solutions to deal with the problems that we have at the moment.”
Asked about the positives, the skipper termed Roston Chase and Sherman Lewis’ performance.
“It’s a tough series and we didn’t play our best cricket. We look back in the last two years and we have some good results. India is No.1 team in the world and we expected to be pushed by them. They’re quality cricket side, especially in their own backyard. We all saw some positive performances from Roston Chase. I thought Sherman was awesome.
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Holder further admitted that batting has been an issue for them for quite some time now.
“You can look and honestly say we didn’t put enough runs on the board. Quite for some time now, we’ve been relatively inconsistent and that has really let us down in the recent past. We haven’t been getting the runs we’ve been looking for.
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“We have heavily relied on middle and lower half which is not ideal. So we need to rectify at the top. The guys in the top five have to put hands up and come to the party,” he said.
The Caribbean outfit will be looking to put up a good show in the upcoming ODI and T20I series.