It has been tough transitioning back just as a player, feels Jason Holder
Jason Holder has stated that it was tough for him to be playing only as a player after leading the side for so long but added that he doesn't beat himself up for his performance. Holder has further added that he felt the need to rest after the limited-overs series against India in December.
Kieron Pollard took over the limited-overs captaincy from Jason Holder last September as CWI reasoned that it had to do with West Indies' performances in limited-overs cricket, especially in ODIs where they had finished at the penultimate position in the World Cup last year. But Holder was caught unawares by the timing of CWI's decision and stated that it was tough for him to transition back to the set-up only as a player.
"To be quite honest, it has been tough transitioning back just as a player. In hindsight, it has been tough trying to understand how to get back in as just a player," Holder told the Cricket Collective podcast on TalkSPORT last week.
While he led the side to the victory in the Caribbean Premier League, he couldn't replicate the same performance with the ball in international cricket and picked up six wickets in eight ODIs at 66.16 with a strike rate of 75 after September. He was not at the top of his game in the World Cup too, but Holder is surely not beating himself up for the same.
"Performances obviously haven't been there as I would've probably liked, but I'm not too disheartened. I don't beat myself up. I don't get too worried because I know my ability. I know what I can produce. I just know that an innings is around the corner, a bowling effort is around the corner.
"I felt I needed the break after the India series [in December] particularly, just to refresh. I had played every single series in the entire year, I played county cricket as well, and my batteries needed a little bit of a recharge. Obviously, I needed some time to go and think about how I wanted to go forward as a player and try to work out again how just to be a player as opposed to being the captain," Holder added.