Published: Nov 28, 2013, 10:39 AM (IST)
Edited: Nov 28, 2013, 10:39 AM (IST)
In his last 11 ODI innings, Darren Bravo has stroked six half-centuries and has looked in great touch, yet he hasn’t converted them into a big innings; instead he has gifted his wicket away after the good starts © Getty Images
By Aayush Puthran
Darren Bravo is not a cricketing great by any stretch of imagination. Nor is he a player who is going to give sleepless nights to opposition bowlers. You know he is not going to be the subject of long discussion in team meetings. Yet if you are a cricket fan, you are likely to leave most of your work to watch him bat.
The willow swings like a magician’s wand in his hand. Yet, to his talent, there needs to be justice. For he isn’t going through a poor patch; he has got starts. In his last 11 One-Day International (ODI) innings, he has stroked as many as six half-centuries. But his scores have not yet materialised for anything substantial. None of them were converted into a century.
Averages of 32 and 42 in ODIs and Tests are far removed from what his caliber stands for. Much like the man whose style he nearly replicates — Brian Lara — Bravo needs to stand up and be counted as a match-winner. For it isn’t about asking too much, but just the desperation to see him justify his talent.
For a player who enthralls the audience with silken drives and makes bowlers feel helpless with precise placement, Bravo deserves to be seen as a much more threatening force than he is seen right now.
Even against India, he registered three scores of 50s. What has been all the more annoying were his ways of getting out. When in full flow, he won’t give bowlers too much of a chance to stop him from scoring. And when he does, bowlers don’t need to plan for his wicket; he gifts it away. It is like you don’t need to hatch plans to kill a sheep that will commit suicide anyway.
As much as historically replication has been a failure, Bravo has it in him to lead the West Indian batting attack with his talent. He may not be as great as the legendary batsman, but he has the ability to win matches single-handedly much like his idol on a more consistent basis. What he also has to his advantage, that Lara didn’t, is a stronger line-up to back him — in the form of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels among others.
He needs to show more application and the temperament for longer innings. With the kind of talent at his disposal, he also needs to learn to hang in the crease, go through the period when there are lapses in concentration. If he chooses to add a bit of caution and sensibility to his flair, it will in all likelihood serve well for the future of two entities — Darren Bravo and West Indies cricket.
(Aayush Puthran is a reporter with CricketCountry. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)
