: Darren Bravo has steadily climbed to the top of the pecking order in West Indies cricket. The 25-year-old Bravo (2311) is close to Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 2715 in Test match aggregate since his debut in November 2011. He is on top of the heap in limited over cricket after his debut in June 2009 (2077 in 76 matches) with a high of 517 against India.
On Friday the left-hander’s cut-shot spelt his downfall, under-edging Dhawal Kulkarni, at the Brabourne Stadium in the visitor’s first official 50 over match against India ‘A’.
The West Indies may fancy its chances in the five-match one-day series and to achieve this specific end, Bravo has to score runs at No. 3.
“I consider myself as a senior batsman in the team. I am looking forward to the one-day series against India. We know it is going to be a tough series for us. We are quietly confident that we will do well.
“In international cricket there is always room for improvement. In the last couple of years I have played quite a lot against India.
“The Indian bowling line-up has been changing time and again; there are some new bowlers on the scene now.
“It’s very important that I look at the clips of their bowlers and try and understand the way they go about things and have a very clear idea what exactly it is that I want to do when I step on the field,” said Bravo while responding to a question if he has to show the way with the likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Chanderpaul not in the line-up.
Big factorBravo is somewhat familiar with the Indian attack including its famous spin department; Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha was its bugbear in 2011 and 2013.
“I am quietly confident that I am capable of performing well. But I am not taking anything for granted. Spin is going to be a big factor in the series. But at the same time it all boils down to playing your natural game and give yourself the best opportunity to get in and hopefully when you get a start you capitalise and try and perform to the best of your ability. I know exactly where I went wrong in the previous two tours.
“Ashwin is a very good bowler. At the same time I just need to continue backing myself. I have done well against him in previous games. I am not really worried about it. It is important that I get it right in this series.”
Touching upon his team’s depth he said: “I think all-round we are a very good team. We have the likes of Marlon Samuels back into the mix, the experienced players in Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, guys who have been playing in the IPL for quite some time.
“We have a mixture of youth and experience and that’s going to give us a very good chance. Not converting the starts has been bothering me for quite some time. In one-day cricket you tend to take little more chances than in Test matches. So that’s something I need to improve on.”
On the prospecting of scoring over the 2011 world champion he said: “There was disappointment for us when we came here last. At the same time that’s gone. Now it’s a new year and new guys in the team are excited and looking forward to the challenge.
“We need to believe, work hard in our practice, support each other in each and every single way, live together like one big happy family and be happy for one another’s success; I believe we are going to do very well here.”
