MANCHESTER – Captain Jason Holder said West Indies had no regrets about keeping almost the same team throughout a physically-demanding three-test cricket series against England although some of his side were suffering from mental fatigue at the end.
A tired-looking West Indies were skittled out for 129 in their second innings on Tuesday to lose the third test at Old Trafford by 269 runs, falling to a 2-1 series defeat after a bright start at Southampton when they won the first test.
“I’m not quite sure what changed for us, we just didn’t get the runs we were looking for,” Holder said after the heavy defeat.
“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.”
West Indies played the same team for the first two tests and then made a single change for the last, inflicting heavy workloads on their bowlers with just three days between each of the tests in an unusually quick turnover time for test cricket.
“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,” Holder explained.
“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.”
West Indies were applauded for travelling to England to compete amid the COVID-19 pandemic and spent one month in virtual quarantine before the series started and then in a bio-secure environment throughout the three tests.
“It has been really challenging and I think mentally some of the guys were worn out,” Holder said.
“It could be this way for a little time to come, so we have to find ways to make it work.” (Reuters)
