Jermaine Blackwood not worried about facing Rangana Herath; Jason Holder hopeful of West Indian comeback

Blackwood felt that he bat batted well against Rangana Herath during the opening Test at the Galle

Promising West Indian batsman Jermaine Blackwood is confident in his own abilities to survive against the likes of Rangana Herath when the visitors take on Sri Lanka in the second Test that begins on Thursday, ESPNCricifo reports. West Indies skipper Jason Holder meanwhile remarked that he has full confidence in his team and is hopeful that they can equalise the series at Colombo.

West Indies suffered a heavy defeat by an innings and six runs in the series opener at the Galle with spinner Rangana Herath once again showcasing his match-winning abilities at home picking up a ten-wicket haul in the match. Blackwood was one of West Indies’ rare bright spots from the match, scoring 92 in the second innings, and the 23-year-old is confident that he can perform even better in the upcoming matches.

The aggressive batsman was handed his Test debut last year after an impressive first-class season and has made a relatively seamless transition with an average of 42.47 from his 11 Tests so far, which is considerably higher than his average in first-class cricket. However, Blackwood feels there are still areas in his game that can be improved upon.

"There's one major issue that I'm still working on - shot selection early up in my innings. Once I'm past that early phase it's quite easy for me. I used to play a lot of shots and loved to feel the ball on my bat. When I reached Test level I realised it's much different because you get less bad balls in Test cricket than you do in first-class. So I need to learn to be much much patient. Once I'm patient I'm adapting to that very quickly," Blackwood said.

“I do want to get my Test average for this year up to 50," he said. "For that I'm on the right track right now. My gameplan is very simple. If I see a ball to hit, I'll hit it. Choosing the right ball to hit - that's what I'm working towards."

Talking about his knock at Galle, the youngster said that he had made a conscious effort not to go after the bowling early on his innings.

"I made a mistake in the first innings playing to a ball outside the off stump that I shouldn't be playing to," he said. "After I get out I go back and rethink my innings. I got out there in the second innings and told myself I'm not going to play any balls outside the off stump early up. I did that and in the end I got a good result. I was trying to push into a century but in the end I get out in the last. I thought it was a good innings," he said.

Despite Herath’s match-winning effort, Blackwood is not worried at facing the 37-year-old and is instead focussing on his own strengths to perform well.

“Herath is a wonderful bowler, but a bowler is a bowler," he said. "Once he bowls a bad ball, I'm going to hit any bowler. If we can bat him out, it's going to be much easier for us. Right now my defence is pretty good, as you can see. Last game Herath was bowling brilliantly and I was batting easy. For me, it's about staying patient and batting more sessions. If I do that I'm going to score more runs. I just need to control my tempo while I'm batting and trust my defence."

Jason Holder hopeful West Indies can stage a comeback

Holder wants West Indies to stage a spirited comeback in the second Test which begins on Thursday

Having suffered an innings defeat in his first outing as skipper of the West Indies’ Test team, Jason Holder is hopeful that his team doesn’t take the loss at Galle too seriously.

"At this present time, we need to knock it down, we need to take it slower and slow down the game as much as possible -- simplify it as much as possible, and make it easy for us," Holder said, as reported by cricket.com.au. I have full confidence in the guys. I just told them, 'Don't get dejected, it's not the end of the world. We have another Test match to make amends and come back stronger’. We will push for that one-all draw."

Holder will be seeking to draw inspiration from the legendary West Indian all-rounder Gary Sobers, considered by many as the greatest all-rounder to have ever played the game, who will be in attendance in Colombo when the match gets underway on Thursday.