3 min readMay 4, 2026 12:05 PM IST
Gujarat Titans took their time getting Jason Holder in as a regular in their playing eleven this season and the senior all-rounder has been pivotal to their recent upturn in fortunes. Holder took four wickets for 24 runs on Sunday as GT beat table-toppers Punjab Kings and thus managed their third consecutive win. Before that, he took two wickets for 29 runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in addition to taking a slew of important catches. Holder’s success on Sunday in particular could be in part attributed to him hitting the good length consistently despite batters looking to hit every ball out of the park, something that is a byproduct of a long and succesfull career in Test cricket.
Holder, who captained West Indies in 37 Test matches between 2015 and 2020, and was rated as the best all-rounder in the world at various points during this period, said after the game on Sunday that he still hasn’t closed the doors on the format. “Fair to say that, last year and a half I have only played T20 cricket, haven’t played Test cricket. I would love to still play some Test-match cricket,” he said. “I haven’t yet closed that chapter.”
Holder’s last Test match came in August 2024 against South Africa. He last played first class cricket in a domestic game for Barbados in March 2025. In 69 Tests, Holder has taken 162 wickets thus far and scored 3073 runs at an average of 29.83 with three centuries and 14 half-centuries. He has also played 138 ODIs in which he took 159 wickets and scored 2237 runs. T20Is remain the only format in which Holder still plays in every game that the West Indies plays and he has take 108 wickets in 96 matches. Holder has also scored 888 T20I runs at a strike rate of 140.06.
In the four matches that Holder has played thus far in the 2026 IPL, he has taken seven wickets and boasts an economy of 6.94. He is yet to show his full range of skills as a batter though, having scored 40 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 148.14. Holder said that he was disappointed that he couldn’t finish the last two matches for GT with the bat.
“I am probably a little disappointed that I didn’t finish the last two games,” Holder said. “But I am still in a good frame of mind. That’s the most important thing for me. Just keeping a fresh mind, staying positive, understanding my role, and just trying to execute when called upon. Just try to make an impact and execute as well as I can under pressure.”
