“Kraigg Brathwaite – Possible new West Indies Test captain in 2015 too!”

Jan 04, 2015 Sports

---

Colin E. H. Croft
In South Africa, Chairman of West Indies selectors Clive Lloyd had an interesting 3rd Test

preview interview with ESPN-CRICINFO’s Firdose Moonda, confirming what most have known for some time:
“West Indies has young talent who want to do well in Test cricket, not just in T-20’s.  Kraigg Brathwaite is a good thinker, getting better all the time, mature for his age, a very intelligent cricketer,” said Lloyd.
Having had an excellent 2014, clear-minded and generally steadfast when most around him had been stagnant, even decimated, that endorsement translates to the possibility, likely to become reality, that Kraigg Clairmonte Brathwaite, 22 year old Barbadian opening batsman, will be WI’s next Test captain.
With Brathwaite, Marlon Samuels and Shiv Chanderpaul the only sureties in WI’s Test batting line-ups, plus captain Denesh Ramdin, there is nothing wrong with that thought.  It may happen sooner than many think, given Lloyd’s and West Indies Cricket Board’s perceived plans for WI’s cricket future.
Brathwaite and Graeme Craig Smith, recently retired SA captain, both compare and contrast well in terms of sensible cricketing attitudes, not just in colloquial comparisons of one of their Christian names!
Smith, of course left-handed to Brathwaite’s right-handedness, then also aged only 22, replaced Shaun Pollock as SA’s Test captain, April 2003, for a series v Bangladesh, in his – Smith’s – ninth Test, only thirteen months after making a second innings half-century, v Australia, on Test debut, March 2002.
SA had decided then to invest in Smith’s youth and the country’s future cricketing hopes, after yet another embarrassing failure at ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, played, ironically, in South Africa.
Do not be surprised if WI cricket does similarly for its Test team after ICC CWC 2015 ends.  Wagers are already out that Brathwaite will become next WI’s Test captain, whenever the change happens!
Debuted in 2011, Brathwaite has already played sixteen Tests to date.  As tall as Smith but slimmer built, more defensively minded, Brathwaite normally effects longevity at the crease with his style, an un-West Indian characteristic that WI’s Test batting line-ups need.
His experiences have been tough, orchestrated to his expected long tenure, given that eight of his budding international Test career have been in losing efforts!
Smith’s cricket career had been simply spectacular.  Despite SA being rated No. 1 in Tests, the only, but massive, omission from his mantle-piece is that SA has never won a major world cricketing championship under his leadership.
Like Chris Gayle, big and tall for an opening batsman, Smith played with tremendous aggression and power, trying to blitz and destroy opposing bowlers with presence and confidence at the crease.  Had Smith not played cricket, he could have been a great rugby player or heavyweight boxer!
200 v Bangladesh in his 3rd Test, 151 v Pakistan in his 8th, Smith played 117 Tests, 9265 runs, avg. 48.25; 12,916 runs in First Class cricket; plus 230 ODI’s and T-20’s combined, a magnificent career for an opening batsman targeted by the world’s best and fastest bowers, especially those of Australia, Pakistan, India and England.
Brathwaite’s Test career, prior to No. 3 v SA; 1116 runs, avg. 39.85; augurs well, and could eventually include over 150 Tests, possibly challenging Chanderpaul’s record, to date; 160 Tests.
Brathwaite’s first Test half century, also v Bangladesh, came in his third Test.  His first Test hundred, 129 v New Zealand, came in his eleventh Test; Queens Park Oval, Trinidad & Tobago, last year.
701 runs in 2014, avg. 78.00, his biggest innings was 212 v Bangladesh in St. Vincent, last June, followed by year-ending 106 v SA at Port Elizabeth, an innings so mature, with an appreciation of game situations at hand, that Lloyd felt compelled to offer imaginations of Brathwaite’s and WI’s future captaincy.
Lloyd, who recently explained Jason Holder’s ascendancy to WI’s ODI captaincy, has also inadvertently put some pressure on WI Test captain Ramdin, whose wicket-keeping skills are still adequate without being spectacular.
Ramdin’s run-getting, though, in these days of ultra-productive wicket-keeper-batsmen, ala Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and just retired-from-Tests Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, must improve considerably in 2015, or he will be replaced by one of WI’s future stalwarts.
63 Tests so far producing only 2457 runs, poor avg. 26.70, Ramdin, not having made even a single half-century in seven Tests in 2014, has been under the batting ‘kosh’, averaging a meagre 22.20 last year.
His tenure as WI captain will come under greater scrutiny unless he can both inspire his team as captain and produce as batsman.  Fortunately, Ramdin has reacted favorably in his first innings for 2015; 53!
After Test No. 3 v SA and ICC CWC 2015, WI will have two Test power-houses touring the Caribbean afterwards; England for three Tests in Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Barbados, while Australia will play in Dominica and Jamaica, ample opportunities for Ramdin to continue to show his batting prowess.
If Ramdin continues his run productivity, after that half century, all will be well with him.  If his 2014 form returns, expect more changes, including WI’s Test captaincy going to Brathwaite in 2015.  Enjoy!

---

---