Windies captain Jason Holder is in high praise of young batsman Shimron Hetmyer, but wants him to add greater value to his wicket by playing longer innings, which could be match-defining.
The gifted Guyanese batsman has only played 10 One Day Internationals, six Tests and three T20 Internationals.
It is a career that begun just in April 2017, after producing some pugnacious innings at the top of the order for Guyana Jaguars in both the four-day championship and the Super50.
Now, just over a year into his international career he has already become one of the mainstays of the team’s batting in his new role in the middle-order. It is in that role Holder wants to see Hetmyer push-on and make a more definitive mark for his team.
“It’s something that him and I have been talking about for a while. He is probably one of the better players of spin in our batting line up and I just encourage him to go deep. I spoke to him last night (Saturday) before the game and one of the things we spoke about is batting until the 35th over and going deep before he starts to expand,” the skipper stated at the post-match press conference.
The 21-year-old stroked a compact 52 from 78 balls in West Indies’ 48-run defeat to Bangladesh on Sunday at Providence. It was his second score over 50 in the format, following his 127 against United Arab Emirates in the World Cup qualifiers earlier this year in Zimbabwe.
Holder, who also faced immense scrutiny when he took over the leadership position in 2015, is adamant the Canje left-hander will get better over time.
“Probably today [Sunday] the situation required him to go deeper than the 35th over, probably down to the 40th, giving the hitters enough leeway to execute their game. He is a young talented player and he will learn as time goes on; we just got to invest time in him,” Holder reckoned.
Windies will want Hetmyer and others to come good on Wednesday as they look to level the series at Providence before heading off to St. Kitts for the final ODI on Saturday.
