West Indies all-rounder Jason Holder and fast bowler Alzarri Joseph will return early from the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in Zimbabwe to gear up for the home series against India. The same has been confirmed in an official statement by West Indies Cricket. The decision of getting Holder and Joseph back home early has been taken considering the workloads ahead of all-format series against India that will be starting from July 12.
"Jason and Alzarri are two of our leading bowlers in all formats," Desmond Haynes, the lead selector for the West Indies men's team
"We have a full schedule for the upcoming series against India, where we begin the new ICC World Test Championship, then followed by the ODIs and the five T20Is. Therefore, we had dialogue, and it was felt the best move at this time is to have two of our leading bowlers return early from Zimbabwe," he added.
The chances of West Indies qualifying for the ODI World Cup crashed when they lost a super six game in Scotland in the qualifying tournament in Harare on July 1. Due to the two defeats against Zimbabwe and Netherlands in the group stages, the team could not make the cut. They they still have games against Oman, who are out of the qualification race and Sri Lanka who have already qualified, on July 5 and July 7 respectively.
West Indies are yet to declare their teams for the series against India, but Holder and Joseph are anticipated to play significant roles. Holder contributed with both bat and ball in the tournament against Zimbabwe, collecting 144 runs from five innings at an average of 36 and taking six wickets at an average of 35.33. Meanwhile, Joseph has been their most successful bowler, bagging eight wickets at an average of 32.11 in five games.
After the bizarre knockout from the World Cup Qualifiers, the West Indies team and the whole management seem to have hit the rock bottom.
"It's (cricket) not an individual thing or a territorial thing," Holder said. "We've got to come together as a region... and really, really think about how we want to go forward as a group and make it happen. We knew what was at stake and we still had a chance to qualify. We had a really good opportunity to play Scotland and beat them (but) we didn't do that."
Holder also urged the team to start again from a grassroot level.
"It's not a quick-fix, it's something we need to spend time on. As I said, development (at grassroots) is the most important thing, where we can just put things in place and develop our talent. Hopefully, in the next couple of years we can see the fruits of that crop," he added.
Managing the workload is extremely important as West Indies and India will play two Test matches, with the first commencing on July 12th at Roseau, Dominica. The second Test will be contested in Trinidad and Tobago's Queen's Park Oval from July 20th to July 24th. Following the Test series, West Indies and India will play three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and five Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) from August 1 to August 13.