BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Apr 29, CMC – Embattled West Indies will place several decades of history on the line when they go in search of a series-levelling victory in the second Test of the three-match series against Pakistan here Sunday.

They have never lost a Test series to the visitors on home soil since the two sides first met in the Caribbean in 1958 and have also never been beaten by Pakistan at historic Kensington Oval in six previous clashes there..

But even with the weight of history looming large over the game, captain Jason Holder said his side needed to remain focused on execution over the next five days.

“We’ve got to put that aside. The only way we can keep those stats good is if we tick our boxes. There’s no point looking at the results, we need to tick our process boxes,” Holder told reporters on the eve of the match.

“There’s a process in terms of winning cricket games. We’ve got to put runs on the board, we’ve got to get 20 wickets. I think once we do these things – hold our chances in the field – we stand a very good chance of winning the game here.

“We need to get runs in both first and second innings and we need to take 20 wickets. In order to win a cricket game you have to take 20 wickets and for us to take 20 wickets we have to set the game up with the bat as well, to give ourselves the best chance to take 20 wickets. If we don’t do these things then we’ll be on the losing end.”

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

WI not chasing anything!

The sad thing is, after we were outplayed in the first test, due to pride and selectors not feeling they need to account to us the fans, they picked the same 13 for the second test. Based on the 13, I expect them to play Blackwood, whose confidence they shattered when they dropped him for the Jamaica test and will be forced to drop one of the two rookies after just one test, which means another youngsters confidence will be shattered. After the first test defeat one would expect an upgrade for the second test, but their stupid pride would not allow them to do so. Based on their 13 I wouldn't be surprised to see another defeat by a wider margin.

The two most experience batsmen in this WI team are KB and KP, hopefully both of them have a good game. The selectors put themselves in an awkward situation in that they should have played Blackwood in the first Test and if he had fail it would have been easy to drop him, but by playing two new players who failed, they are now obligated to give them a second chance even if they now want to make a change.

Pakistan one up in the three test series made one change to the team that crushed us at Sabina park while West Indies playing the same eleven that looked like school boys. Are we really chasing or planning to protect anything? With our very prideful selectors that continue to hold on to their pride instead of really putting a winning team together, one gets the impression that their pride will prevail while our cricket continues to fall away to the point where we will be last in test ranking, last in ODI and last in T20.

I share your sentiment. But to play the same eleven is proof that they are more interested in covering their pride than to put out a winning team.