As Jason Holder gets ready to play England at Lord’s in his first Test for over a year, he thinks that his experience of watching from a distance as West Indies wrapped up their exciting eight-run triumph over Australia at the Gabba in January has given him “renewed energy” to pick up where he left off.
Jason Holder, 32, turned down a central contract to fulfill his lucrative deal with Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, thus he was one of the glaring exclusions when West Indies decided to send a depleted side to Australia earlier this year. While he was away, the West Indies team led by Kraigg Brathwaite recovered magnificently from a ten-wicket loss in Adelaide to square the series in Brisbane, where Australia had only lost one Test match since 1988.
Jason Holder Feels Energetic Once Again
Jason Holder said he felt reignited once again after he learned that test cricket was back, he said :
“It gave me a renewed energy to come back to the group, and try to be a part of something special again,” Holder said. “I missed Test cricket. This is my first Test match in a long time, so I’m looking forward to it. I’m just happy that I’ve been able to still get the body up and going and being up for the challenge here.”
Jason Holder dismissed the idea that “it’s not my job to find a solution” in response to the allure of franchise cricket, but he did note that players from South Africa and New Zealand have recently chosen to forego central contracts in order to maximize their earnings in Twenty20 competitions.
“It is what it is,” he added. “This is where the game is moving, each and every person has their own personal decision to make. I was just so happy for the boys when they when they did what it did in Australia.”
The West Indies have landed in London, where they will start the Lord’s Test as underdogs because their last victory in an English Test series ended in 1988. Jason Holder is certain that his team has what it takes to win this time around, though, having won the Richards-Botham Trophy after a tough 1-0 victory in the Caribbean in 2021–22 and having won two of their most recent away series, at Headingley and Southampton, in 2017 and 2020.
“The guys took a lot from that Test victory in Australia,” he said after West Indies’ training on Monday. “We’ve been doing some really positive things over the last couple of months. And I think as a young side, the main thing is just to keep learning. What we have in the dressing room is some special talent, no doubt about it.
“It’s just a matter for us just to play some solid cricket and they’ll have just to believe. It’s time for someone to break the shackles, and there’s no better time for us to come here and beat England.”
Playing This Series In Normal Conditions
The current West Indies visit is taking place behind closed doors in bio-secure surroundings at Southampton and Old Trafford, a far cry from their last tour in 2020, which took place during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak. Jason Holder was captain at the time, and while his side garnered a lot of respect for their role in preserving international cricket during a period of uncertainty, he did not have many pleasant memories of the experience.
“Firstly, it’s just good to be out in the open again,” he said. “I remember being locked in Manchester for three weeks before the Test series, which was tough because you stayed at the ground. And then we went down to Southampton for a week, which felt like a week out of prison. And then we went right back into prison after Southampton.”
The continuation of the program, nevertheless, brought some normalcy to an otherwise shut-down world, and Jason Holder hoped that the same may hold true for the people of the Caribbean, which was severely devastated by Hurricane Beryl last week.
Prior to his Test comeback, Jason Holder played two first-class matches for Barbados in March. Jason Holder then participated in five County Championship matches for Worcestershire, where he finished with an undefeated century against Kent.
“It was one hell of an experience,” he said of his time with the club. “It gave me new energy because the love that the boys showed me was second to none.”
Jason Holder declined to be included in the discussion at this time, despite the fact that James Anderson and his upcoming retirement will be the main topic of discussion leading up to the opening Test. He did concede, though, that Anderson’s exit from England will likely leave a void like to the one Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s departure from the West Indies following Chanderpaul’s 21-year career.