Chris Gayle’s current poor form is not a major worry for West Indies captain Jason Holder, who believes the talismanic opener will come good soon.
Gayle has found himself in a lean patch, scoring just 111 runs from his last seven innings, at an average of nearly 16. He is without a hundred in the last 20 months with just one half-century in the intervening period.
Yet, Holder remained confident that the veteran could fire at any moment.
“Well, every time I see Chris Gayle, I expect to see a positive Chris Gayle,” Holder told media here.
“Although he hasn’t been getting runs, we still have a lot of confidence in him.”
With Gayle out of form, West Indies have endured dodgy starts with his opening partner Dwayne Smith also struggling.
In the two World Cup games so far, Gayle and Smith have posted stands of 30 and 17.
Despite this, West Indies managed to top 300 on both occasions and Holder believes once Gayle came good, West Indies could be looking at a massive score.
Holder said Gayle will move on from the re-tweet made by president of the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), Dave Cameron, which suggested that Gayle should be given his retirement package after he failed against Pakistan.
Cameron re-tweeted the comment from a fan and has since come under fire for his action, especially from former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding.
Asked how this has affected Gayle, Holder said: ”The comments are beyond me and I am sure that Chris will put that away and play his game.”
Holder has also come under criticism from former coach Ottis Gilbson, who said that he thinks Holder is far from ready for captaincy at this point in time. He added that the all rounder needs to focus on his game rather than looking to select other men at this stage. To this Holder responded :” Obviously I had a decent relationship with Ottis and I heard about his comments and i thank him for his comments. I am looking to just go out there and do my best for the West Indies. I am ready for captaincy, if I wasn’t, I would not have accepted the job. Once I can get my players to gel, we can be world beaters again.”
Looking towards the rest of the World Cup, Holder was confident his team can keep the momentum gained from the Pakistan win. “We have been working hard, the win against Pakistan was good and we are preparing to bring our A game for the rest of the tournament. We need to keep that momentum going.”
He was happy with the batting overall but called on his top order to fire. “ We have gotten in excess of 300 twice and this is a good psychological advantage going into the second half of the game. It will be better to get the top order to fire and we are hoping to do that in this game. Once they fire, I think that we can even get 400 runs. Aggression won us the last game and we will continue in that way.”
