We were outplayed by Indian team, says Windies skipper Jason Holder

Kingston: After losing the two-match Test series against India, Windies skipper Jason Holder said his team was outplayed by the Indian team and credited the Virat Kohli-led side for playing a good brand of cricket.

His remarks came after India's 257-run victory over the Windies in the second Test of the series here at Sabina Park.

"We were outplayed by the Indian side, they put us under pressure from the very start. They played a good brand of cricket, our batters were not able to rise up to the challenge, our bowlers displayed good performances but we were not able to put enough runs on the board," Holder told reporters after the match.

He said that in order to produce world-class cricketers, the country needs to focus on first-class cricket. Holder also said that the side needs to get more consistent to challenge teams from all over the world.

"I do not think it is a quick fix. We have got to put things in place and hope we improve. We need to focus on first-class cricket because we will build players there only," Holder said.

"We have one more match against Afghanistan this year and then we do not play Test cricket until 2020. There are lots to be done, we can have camps to develop both batsmen and bowlers. We need to put more emphasis on franchise level cricket to develop cricketers from the very start," he added.

The 27-year-old said that the series loss against India has not disheartened him. He advocated the need to improve the franchise level cricket to enable players to deal with pressure situations.

"In Test cricket, we have done well in the past two-three years. This series was just a bad outing, we have success in the format in the past. I am not too disheartened with this series, we have match-winners with both ball and bat. We just need to be consistent. We need to develop players in franchise cricket. There is a massive gap in our List A side and national side."

Pacer Kemar Roach was the standout bowler for the Windies as he picked up eight wickets in the two-match series. Skipper Holder lauded Roach for the consistency, saying "pacer always stepped up when the skipper required him to".

"Kemar has been fantastic. He is one motivating factor in the side. We had bowlers going off in the series, but Kemar has always risen up to the challenge. He has always stepped up whenever I wanted him to," Holder said.

Windies batter Darren Bravo was hit on the head by a bouncer bowled by Jasprit Bumrah on the third day of the Test. The batsman seemed to look fine on the day, but today he had to be ruled out of the match due to concussion.

"He got through that yesterday and came out to bat today. But he started to feel dizzy, maybe because of the heat and that is why we decided to pull him off from the Test," Holder said.

With the series win, India has moved to the top of the World Test Championship with 120 points.

This series victory was the eighth consecutive series win for India over Windies.