West Indies began their India tour on a humiliating note. After losing the first Test by an innings and 272 runs, The Caribbean guests are gearing for the 2nd and the final Test beginning from Friday in Hyderabad. And ahead of the match, skipper Jason holder took a dig at his team's critics. He stated that even a far superior Caribbean outfit of the 90's, including the legendary Brian Lara, couldn't win a Test series in India.
“We are playing the No.1 team, India, in their backyard. And history would show we haven't won a Test match here since 1994 and if you look at the players who came through West Indies cricket, I think Brian Lara and these greats have been playing all that time,” said holder.
West Indies had to face a severe backlash for their own veterans following their collapse against India in Rajkot. Recently, former West Indies captain Carl Hooper was critical of youngsters in the island nations being only interested in T20 contracts but without taking names, the current skipper presented a contrarian view.
"Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just focus primarily on what I have to do and what the team has to do. There's no point worrying about what people have to say because people will always have to say (something or the other). The only way we can silence the critics, or try to silence them because I don't think they'll ever shut up, is by playing cricket,” said the West Indian skipper.
He also didn't agree with the theory that West Indies can go the Bangladesh way by concentrating on one format, maybe ODI or T20.
“I think I would disagree with that. If you look at our history in the last three-four-five years, our suited formats have ideally been T20 cricket and second behind would be Test cricket. We are really struggling in ODI cricket for the last 10 years if you go back that far.”
West Indies last drew an away Test series against India way back in 1994 when Lara scored 91 at Mohali. However, that was the only Test series that Lara played in India.