Bravo down but not out

AFTER being overlooked for the West Indies’ upcoming matches against Afghanistan in India, Darren Bravo has made himself available for the TT Red Force for the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup, that will bowl off on November 6 in TT and St Kitts and Nevis.

Bravo was not selected for the Test, One Day International and T20 West Indies squads as the top order left-hander has struggled with his form recently.

In the recently concluded 2019 Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Bravo was below his best scoring 128 runs in seven innings at an average of 25.60. Prior to the CPL, Bravo had a dismal showing in the two-match Test series against India with scores of four, 23 not out, 18 and two. Yesterday, a meeting was held, at the National Cricket Centre, in Couva, between Red Force officials and Bravo and by the end of the meeting the left-hander indicated his availability. Bravo will join the Red Force training session tomorrow.

Red Force coach Mervyn Dillon is delighted to have Bravo involved in training. “He is not on the West Indies team, so once there is cricket for TT (I expect him to be available). The young man, I know he is always interested in representing his country. We had a nice meeting with him this evening, he said he will be out for training on Thursday which is great.”

Dillon knows Bravo has not been in the best form of late, but says he is a quality player that will be an asset to the team. “We all disappointed that he has not done as well as we would have liked and I have always said that he is one of the few batsmen I would pay to see bat and to have him in my set up it is actually a blessing for me.”

Bravo, 30, will bring experience to the Red Force team as a number of the team’s senior players are on the West Indies team for the Afghanistan matches. Red Force will be missing Kieron Pollard, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran, Khary Pierre, Lendl Simmons and Denesh Ramdin.

Despite missing some senior players, Dillon said he has seasoned campaigners to call on in Yannic Cariah, Jason Mohammed, Anderson Phillip, Daniel St Clair and Imran Khan.

“It shows the depth of TT cricket. With those players we would have lost we still have a lot of experience in terms of guys who have played for a number of years around, so it is not that we just have junior players. It is just to mend with the younger guys who are trying to come through.”

The Red Force coach says some of the players who have not been selected in the past can now grab their opportunity. “It gives guys on the peripheral a chance to get in and cement their place in the TT set up. We have a lot of guys around that have been asking and begging for the opportunity to do so, but we have some stalwarts in TT cricket that have been around for a while.”