Holder pins his trust on pacy, bouncy WACA pitch

It has been a tough initiation into captaincy for Jason Holder, starting with the away series against South Africa. The team’s inconsistency coupled with his personal bowling form, or the lack of it, has put him under considerable scrutiny.

“Yeah, it's cricket, it's sport,” said Holder when asked about his poor bowling against South Africa who clobbered the paceman for 104 in 10 overs.  “You have good days, you have bad days. Obviously, I've had a bad bowling effort in a sense in the last game. But the way I look at it, I just try to learn from it, and I'm not too worried about it. That's gone. That is in the past, and I've taken a lot from it. So I'm really looking forward tomorrow to just come back stronger,” he offered.

Holder hoped the WACA pitch, known for its pace and bounce, will play to his liking. “Traditionally, the WACA has presented a lot of bumps and pits,” pointed out Holder. “I've played here before and I've enjoyed the conditions here. I'm sure tomorrow will be no exception to that. Having said that, you still have to use the conditions to your favour. I think it's important that you just hit your good areas and a good bowler is a good bowler. So the more good bowls you string together, the better off you'll be in the game,” he remarked.

Holder backed his bowlers to come good against the Indian batting line-up which has been in good form. “Obviously, they have good players and players that are in form,” he began. “You know, Virat has been phenomenal for them over the last few years. They have Shikhar Dhawan who has been in some form, and you have players like (Suresh) Raina and MS Dhoni. But cricket is played on the day, and I back my bowlers to execute their plans and put them on the back foot. But they have a pretty good line-up and some good quality players. We've planned for them and we're just looking to execute our plans tomorrow.”

He wasn’t too perturbed about Gayle’s back problem. “As far as I know, Gayle turned up to practice the last time we had practice and today, so that makes it two (sessions). Everybody's good to go. We've had some days off, obviously, so we just try to manage our players well so they'll be fresh enough for this game tomorrow. “