Kemar Roach’s almost hat-trick. Jason Holder‘s five-for. Roston Chase’s four wickets in 38 overs.

A flicker of momentum, a glimmer of greatness here and there. That’s all West Indies had to show over the last month, in the series against India, as they suffered 3-0 and 2-0 defeats in the T20Is and ODIs, and their first Test series loss at home in two years.

It’s easy to lose faith in the face of results like these but captain Jason Holder seemed generally positive during the post-match press conference, focusing on the brighter moments – particularly from the bowlers – in this series. He spoke, for instance, on how he drew motivation from Roach.

“I just said to him in the dressing room that he is one of my motivating factors,” he said. “To see the effort he comes and gives, it really pushes me. I know Shannon went off in this game and we had Miguel Cummins go off in the last game. It wasn’t the ideal situation for us fast bowlers. We have been on the field every single day except this day in this series.

“It’s been a situation where there’s a heavy weight on the fast bowlers, but every single time we call on Kemar, every single time we call on Shannon, they have never said no. For me that’s motivation enough. I really probably wouldn’t have liked to bowl so many overs, you know, but that’s just how the game has gone and somebody has to bowl the overs, a situation where we had to put our heads together as a bowling unit and get the job done.”

While the bowling unit has succeeded consistently, Holder felt that structural changes are still required to fix the massive gap between the levels of West Indies’ domestic cricket and international cricket, particularly in the batting department.

“I don’t think it’s a quick fix, you know,” he said. “I think it’s a situation in the Caribbean, we are not really spoilt for choice in terms of batsmen coming through the region. We have got to put things in place to make sure we keep developing players, make sure players are doing the right thing to be successful at this level. There is still a lot more emphasis to be put on franchise level and first-class cricket, and that’s where we are going to build players, you know. They’ve got experience and scenario-based experience, and when they come on to [play] Test cricket, it becomes a little bit easier.”

Holder lauded debutant offspinner Rahkeem Cornwall‘s consistency, and his ability to bowl and wear opponents down in long spells.

“Rahkeem did a fairly reasonable job for us, held things together nicely on one end. It allowed our seamers to express themselves at the other end. And our seamers have done the bulk of damage for us in the last three years,” he said. “Rahkeem came and did a nice job. He didn’t get the wickets he was looking for, but I think his job was well done. Even with the batting he showed some promise.”

Holder was also impressed with the way Jermaine Blackwood adapted to being called up as a concussion substitute on the fourth day in Jamaica. Blackwood, who was originally not part of the Test squad but is from Jamaica, was drafted into the XI after Darren Bravo was ruled out due to a concussion on the fourth morning. Blackwood scored 38 and was part of the only fifty stand in West Indies’ second innings, adding 61 with Shamarh Brooks.