Captain Jason Holder believes Shai Hope has the potential to be among the West Indies’ best one-day international players ever. Hope has hit form during the Windies’ tri-series matches in Ireland, completing back-to-back centuries for Holder’s side.
The 25-year-old wicketkeeper batsman struck a career-best 170 and partnered John Campbell for a 365-run opening stand – the highest for the first wicket in ODI history – in the first game against Ireland. Then against Bangladesh, Hope’s 109 coaxed the West Indies to a total of 261-9 and he passed 2000 ODI runs, becoming the fastest West Indian to the mark, during the course of that knock.
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“Shai has been our most consistent player over the last two years,” Holder said. “He’s the quickest West Indian to 2000 runs, which is a really phenomenal feat. I saw the list of guys on the TV and it’s really good to have him in that company, and if he continues in that vein, he could be arguably one of our best ODI players to ever play.”
And Hope, who reached 2000 runs after 47 ODIs – one match faster than the great Sir Vivian Richards – is still looking to improve. “I’m happy with how things have gone so far,” he said. “I think the guys have been working really hard, they’ve been very disciplined.
We probably weren’t at our best in the last game, but we’ve had tons of discussions over the last couple of days as to how we can get better and how we can improve, which is what you want in a young group like this one. “I’m very positive that we can bounce back against Ireland, and when we play Bangladesh the second time around, we’ll put up a much better performance.”
