West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite wants discipline and the right attitude from team

THE newly appointed West Indies captain, Kraigg Brathwaite says discipline and the right attitude will be key for the West Indies as they take on Sri Lanka in the first Test match today in Antigua.

Speaking at a virtual media conference yesterday, Brathwaite said that once they get discipline from the batting unit and the bowling unit then he knows they will do well.

It has been difficult to predict the West Indies’ performance with the bat over the years as it has been inconsistent, while the bowling unit has been performing for some time now. However in recent months there has been some resilience showed by what has been a fragile middle order.

The victorious team from the Bangladesh Test matches has been boosted by the return of the World’s No. 1 all-rounder and former captain, Jason Holder, as well as batsman Darren Bravo. These two are the only returning players to the team as the selectors have shown faith in the players who won the last Test tour.

Though only recently appointed at captain, Brathwaite said he always saw himself as a leader as he was an opening batsman and had to lead the batting team. Now he looks forward to the challenge of the new role as captain.

Brathwaite has a clear plan as to how he wishes the team to go and the backbone of it is discipline and attitude, which he kept reiterating throughout the media conference.

The win is the ultimate goal and Brathwaite mentioned that they first have to take care of the small targets and then the big one will take care of itself.

He has already warned the team about getting complacent and underestimating the Sri Lanka side as the limited overs team completed a winning series in the T20 and the ODIs.

But that is over.

“One of the first things I stressed on was that the ODI series is finished and the T20 is finished. We are not just going to roll over them, we have to go out there and fight with the right attitude and a lot of discipline.”

The West Indies captain was happy with what he saw in the net session as well as the Best-of-the-Best game as it showed that the players are hungry for success and they have brought the same intensity and attitude which took them to victory in Bangladesh into this series’ preparations.

As a team, Brathwaite said they have come together and gelled nicely together as most of the team flew into Antigua and stayed after the Bangladesh tour.

Antigua has been the place of some memorable scores. It was the Antigua Recreation Ground that saw Brian Lara score 400 runs. However, this time the Test match will be at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and Brathwaite says he believes that there will be some good scores in the Test match as it looks like a good cricket pitch.

With some wondering how they will negate the spin attack of Sri Lanka, Brathwaite said that they just came from Bangladesh where they also faced a healthy diet of spin.

“Sri Lanka may have more variety, but the guys are looking forward to the challenge and we have plans to go about each bowler and we have to trust the plans.”

Though the final combination of the team has not been decided, Brathwaite said that one thing is going to be crucial and that is the first hour of the game, no matter how the toss goes.