Jason Holder eyes 2019 World Cup qualification for the West Indies

West Indies skipper Jason Holder is in a spot of bother at the moment. Of course, the Windies have been on a downward spiral for the most part of the last few years in all formats barring T20 cricket and now find themselves requiring to secure qualification to enter the upcoming edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup to be played in England in 2019.

While the Windies have a great cricketing history, it is in recent times that they are facing such a brunt. This has seen them appoint Jason Holder, a 26-year old youngster to the position. They have also been one of the few sides in recent times that has not been as successful against the associate nations. Most recently, they were on the receiving end against Zimbabwe, a side that has traversed a similar path.

However, despite leading a relatively young side, Jason Holder has urged his players to give it all they have got in the upcoming ODI series against England. These ODI series will be to the magnitude of three matches. While England will view this series as a potential preparation for the Champions Trophy at home, it would be qualification, resurrection and pride as far as the Windies are concerned.

“The more cricket we play together, the better we’ll become,” Holder mentioned while speaking to the media before the series opener. “We had some new faces come out at the end of last year, in our series in Zimbabwe. I thought we had a pretty decent series but one of the major factors that hurt us was inexperience.

“We’ve a very inexperienced side. It’s a relatively young team. But we’re looking to make a mark on the international circuit,” the skipper added.

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Holder also went ahead and quashed the World T20 win, something that had come almost a year previously. He also urged his teammates to view this series as a clean slate to start over.

“This feels like a clean slate. We’ve quite a few changes in our administrative part and we have to get accustomed to the new coach, director of cricket and CEO. But it’s important for us to just deal with cricket. That’s the only thing we can control. It’s a new year. We just came off our domestic competition. Everybody is raring to go. I’m happy with the side I have right now.”

Speaking about the new blood in the side, Holder went on to state that, “Shai Hope came off a very good tour in Zimbabwe and followed up starting the year well in our domestic competition,” Holder said. “We’ve got young exciting cricketers like Rovman Powell and Jason Mohammed. From the fast-bowling point, there’s Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph. So we’ve an inexperienced side but we’re looking to make a mark on the international circuit.