PERTH, Australia (CMC) — West Indies captain Chris Gayle has proclaimed new respect for his West Indies side on the strength of their competitive showing against Australia.

West Indies went down 0-2 in the three-match Test series against Australia but after strongly challenging — sometimes dominating in the second and third Test matches — against the highly rated Aussies, Gayle believes they have shed the weak and unattractive label they started the tour with. West Indies had looked woefully outclassed when losing the first Test by an innings and 65 runs in Brisbane. The Caribbean side then rallied to lead Australia on first innings in the drawn second Test at Adelaide and after tearing the Australian batting apart for a second-innings 150 in the final Test at Perth, went within 36 runs of achieving an upset victory on Sunday.

“Despite the result, I think we regained a bit of respect,” said Gayle after losing the last match at the WACA.

“People look at us now and might look at us differently even though we lost the series 2-0. I definitely know that we gained respect from Australia and we showed them we weren’t going to be a pushover after the first game,” he added.

Gayle expressed disappointment that their resilient third Test effort against the tough Aussies was not rewarded with a victory.

“It has been tough coming here and actually beating Australia, and looking back on this game a bit more application from our senior guys in the batting department and anything could have happened,” he said.

“We fought really well to come back in this Test match. Restricting Australia to 150 gave us a chance to actually win this game, but it didn’t happen. I’m just happy with the progress in this game, but it’s a disappointing series for us,” added the big Jamaican lefthander, who copped the man of the series award with two superb hundreds.

After trailing by a massive 208 runs on first innings, West Indies had rebounded admirably late on day three in Perth through Dwayne Bravo (4-42) and Sulieman Benn (3-29) before fighting half-centuries from Narsingh Deonarine (82) and Brendan Nash (65) boosted their hopes of successfully chasing the target of 359.

“You always have to show that confidence in your players to get the job done regardless of the situation. They got off to a good start and were looking like getting set, but up against a good attack it was always going to be challenging and tough,” he said.

Currently ranked number eight in Test cricket ratings, which are headed by India, South Africa and Australia, West Indies are only ahead of Bangladesh on the rankings list but Gayle believes they have the platform to upgrade their standing in world cricket.

“It’s a rebuilding situation and there’s room for improvement. We can look at some simple things costing us in the game and if we can sort that out as soon as possible in Test cricket we can start winning games,” he said.