Is Bravo the answer?
Every team needs a glue guy, Luke Dunning argues Darren Bravo is West Indies'
With the West Indies tour now complete and the analysis and fallout beginning, Luke Dunning argues the case for the re-selection of Darren Bravo.
In order to bolster a side that has rightly come under fire for the brittle nature of its batting I would have Bravo return at four and build the test team around him.
The Windies have to treat the 31 year old like their version of Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli, Joe Root etc and protect him at all costs. IF that means Shamarh Brooks or Jermaine Blackwood have to move to three to accommodate him there so be it.
Bravo’s test match experience (avg 38) is so important for this West Indies side going forward and if they can get another 4-5 years out of him he could prove to be the backbone for a brittle top six.
The majority of calls to replace Shai Hope have centred on either Darren Bravo or Shimron Hetmyer replacing him.
Bravo played four games for Trinidad & Tobago in the West Indies domestic tournament averaging 42 (1 hundred, 1 fifty), Hetmyer played two games for Guyana averaging 17. Given that the talented players in the region often have to develop their red ball cricket in the Test Match arena. One should bow to Bravo’s previous experience in Test Match cricket across 2010-2016 (avg 40) and take the gamble that he can realise his potential in the back end of his career.
Of course, it is easier to miss players when they aren’t there and we would do well to remember that 2019 was Bravo’s first year back from a three year exodus in Test Cricket. He averaged 13.25 across two test series against England and India in something of a baptism of fire. He was promptly sent back to domestic FC cricket to get runs and confidence. Off the back of his aforementioned form Bravo was selected for this tour of England but understandably pulled out due to COVID-19.
In the last decade, only Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle average more than Bravo (min. 10 innings). The progress that some of the current batting unit showed in England would benefit from Bravo’s experience. The responsibility of the batting gets shared once you have a genuine test class batsman in the line-up.
Bravo averages 54.37 in Asia and 56.55 in Oceania; his main flaws seem to come at home where he averages 26.78 but if he can sort that out West Indies would have their version of a “gun batsman”.
Decisions whether to bat first or not, that plagued this tour, suddenly become easier to make when you know you have a batsman that has extensive experience around the world and can construct long innings.
Article edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt
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