BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) — Skipper Jason Holder says while West Indies’ batting was a huge disappointment in the Twenty20 (T20) series, it could not overshadow the massive strides made by the Caribbean side during the overall tour against England.
West Indies crumbled for record lows in the two final T20 Internationals here at Warner Park to suffer comprehensive defeats, and ultimately, a 3-0 series whitewash.
But with the Windies — written off by pundits before the tour — stunning England 2-1 in the three-Test series to regain the Wisden Trophy, and coming from behind in the one-day series to earn a 2-2 draw in the five-match rubber against the world number one side, Holder said there was little reason for his side to be ashamed.
“The Test series was exceptional, the ODI series was equally as good,” Holder told reporters following the final T20 here Sunday.
“We arguably let ourselves down in the ODI series but England still played some very good cricket as well, and the T20 series just wasn’t ours. To be fair we were outplayed, but overall I’m pretty pleased.”
He continued: “We just weren’t good enough [in the T20 series]. We didn’t adjust to the wicket — I felt it was a bit two-paced — and I felt England bowled a really hard length and asked us to hit them off their lengths, and we just didn’t adjust to what the wicket threw at us and we didn’t really play well.
“I still feel the batsmen are fairly confident. We didn’t play the surface as well as we would’ve liked but I’m not too disheartened by the performance. Obviously we’re disappointed to be rolled over on home court in two games, but overall the guys had a pretty good ODI leg of the series and there’s a lot to build on.”
West Indies lost the opening T20 in St Lucia by four wickets but batting meltdowns here ensured the series was a virtual no contest. In last Friday’s second match, they were dismissed for 45 — the second-lowest total in T20s — to lose by 137 runs.
On Sunday, they were rolled over for 71 — their third lowest T20 total — as England strolled to a comfortable eight-wicket win.
Holder said while the Windies had prepared and executed well in the ODIs, they failed to make the adjustment to the shortest format — especially after opting to retain the one-day squad for the T20s in order to further their World Cup preparations.
“We probably just didn’t adjust to the T20 format — we had our plans pretty much nailed down for the ODIs and I felt we played a really good ODI series,” the all-rounder pointed out.
“There is still a lot of improvement to be had and fielding is obviously one of our key points to really, really touch up on going into England (World Cup), and obviously we need to be a little bit tighter at the top [of the order] to build a few more partnerships, and dig a bit deeper up front.”
