Jason Holder, the captain of the West Indies One Day International team, is quite capable of becoming a solid middle order batsman in the coming future.
Currently, he is more of a specialist bowler and bats at 8 or 9, but, some of his innings in international Cricket off late have given the indication that he has quite a bit of batting talent in him and if he starts coming slightly up the order, he can be a decent contributor with the bat too for West Indies.
In a World Cup game versus India in Perth where almost all the top batsmen of his team were back in the hut on a quick and bouncy surface, the daringness with which Holder held the fort for the men in maroon; it was a display of character.
He scored a half century there and gave his team something to fight for.
Apart from that, Holder batted well in two other games too in the World Cup and that against strong oppositions.
Against South Africa in a group game, West Indies were chasing 400 and were 7 down under 100 when Holder came in and the skipper got a fifty there, playing some delightful shots.
And, then in the quarter final game against the Kiwis, it was the similar sort of situation again for the West Indies.
They were chasing about 390 and had lost wickets in clusters. Holder scored 40 odd there and was the last wicket to fall.
Holder is not the first tail-ender to get some handy runs in a big tournament. Some of the other guys have done that before.
But, when you see Holder play, you automatically get the feeling that he is a capable player. He does not slog. He times the ball, knows how to play inside out. He milks the balling too.
What’s interesting is that, coming from school cricket, Holder was actually a batting all rounder, but, because of his impressive height, he was advised to focus more on bowling.
However, now that he is an established international Cricketer, he should perhaps put on some work on his batting again.