‘He is now our Chris Gayle, he is our Brian Lara’: Dwayne Bravo on West Indies superstar Andre Russell
Bravo also mentioned that the team management acknowledged the fact that there was a lot of work which needed to put in to make the side a formidable force to reckon with at the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Andre Russell is perhaps the most valuable player in T20 cricket and his West Indies colleague Dwayne Bravo has compared him to Chris Gayle and Brian Lara owing to the match-winning qualities he brings to the table. “He’s the best in the world,” Bravo, who was part of the West Indies side, said in praise of Russell in a chat with Trinidad-based radio station I955 FM on Friday. “It’s the same I used to say of Chris Gayle when Chris Gayle was in his prime - we are happy to have him representing us, we didn’t have to come up and bowl against him in an international match. It’s the same with Andre Russell. Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, is our Brian Lara, in the T20 format. He is the superstar.”
Bravo also mentioned that the team management acknowledged the fact that there was a lot of work which needed to put in to make the side a formidable force to reckon with at the upcoming T20 World Cup. Captain Kieron Pollard and coach Phil Simmons wants the side to go through the grind if they have to defend their title in Australia later this year.
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“Prior to that [T20I series in Sri Lanka], we weren’t really consistent as a team over the years in T20 cricket,” Bravo said. “With the 3-0 loss in the ODI series, we T20 guys had a chat among ourselves along with the management and made a pledge that we want to start back winning series. We said we wanted to be back being the most dominant team in the T20 format.
“We have produced some of the best players in the world and when we are together in the same team, we have to stamp our authority, and to get the cricketing world to respect West Indies cricket again and especially West Indies’ T20 team. We said, ‘All hands on deck, let’s start with this Sri Lanka series and make sure we send the message.’ Yeah, that’s what we did.”