West Indies captain Jason Holder has on Tuesday (July 28) insisted that the tourists have no regrets of playing almost the same playing XI in all three physically-demanding Tests of the Wisden Trophy against England despite suffering a 2-1 series defeat at Old Trafford.
The tourists played the same team for the first two Tests and then made a single change for the series-deciding Test to put a heavy workload on their fast bowlers with just three days between each of the Tests and the all-rounder also felt some of his teammates were suffering from mental fatigue at the end.
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Trying to defend the Wisden Trophy in England, the West Indies made a bright start at Southampton by winning the first Test, but the tired-looking tourists couldn’t take it to the final, suffering heavy defeats in both second and final Tests to lose the series on Tuesday.
Holder said: “I’m not quite sure what changed for us, we just didn’t get the runs we were looking for. We had a few starts in our batting performances; a few guys got runs but didn’t quite kick on. Our bowlers tried in some very tough conditions and it was not as bad as it looked.”
He further explained, “We won the first Test with our best team and we then wanted to clinch the series after that and if you want to do that, you need to put out your best team. We did consider the workloads after not having played cricket for a while but it was one of those decisions where you have to back your best team to do the job for you.”
On traveling to England amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Holder said making the series possible has been really challenging since they had to spend one month in virtual quarantine before the matches and then in a bio-secure environment throughout the three-Test series.
He signed off by saying, “It has been really challenging and I think mentally some of the guys were worn out. It could be this way for a little time to come, so we have to find ways to make it work.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
