The beauty of Kraigg Brathwaite’s batting is his patience, something in the mould of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who prefers staying at the crease instead of going for wild shots every now and then. A country known for its vast talent pool of power-hitters, West Indies were desperately looking for someone like Brathwaite to provide them some much-needed solidity at the top order.Over the years they tried more than 10 batsmen to make them a permanent opening partner of Chris Gayle but none succeeded. The most recent omission is Kieron Powell, who scored a hundred in each innings against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2012.
But his form deserted him in the India and New Zealand series late last year and Powell was dropped after his failure in the first Test against New Zealand in Kingston in June.
Brathwaite grabbed the opportunity with both hands to score a hundred in Port of Spain and now a double century against Bangladesh – 212 from 447 balls with just 14 fours – made him a contender for a permanent berth.
‘Obviously right now my biggest strength is my concentration,’ Brathwaite told reporters on Saturday. ‘It’s about facing the spin, finding the gap lot better, although I need to have lot of improvement.’
Brathwaite, a product of Barbados’ famous Combermere School which produced 13 Test cricketers before him, including Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott, has showed enough patience throughout his latest innings.
At 199, he waited for 11 balls despite a wobbly bowling, before a powerful paddle sweep off Mahmudullah earned him his deserving double century, his first and being 27th West Indian.
Still waiting to celebrate his 22nd birthday, Brathwaite is now the third youngest double centurion for West Indies after Gary Sobers and George Headley.
To be able to be named in the same bracket of Sobers, a fellow Barbadian, Brathwaite felt extremely happy.
‘Obviously I am very happy to get the record,’ said Brathwaite. ‘I know Barbados have a lot of Test cricketers, they all keep working hard.
Brathwaite was moved by the response from the local fans, who despite his uninspiring batting approach, cheered him on throughout the innings.
The bowling was less than ordinary, the fielders were tired, yet he never looked to be in a hurry.
‘For me it’s no wonder that they bowled lot of spin,’ said Brathwaite, nicknamed Bobo. ‘Obviously the pitch is quite flat, it’s tough to score on but it’s not that hard and it’s decent bowling attack.
‘And I was looking to score as much as possible because you can’t score all the time,’ said Braithwaite, who already averaged 107.25 in 2014
-With New Age input
