Lack of confidence by batsmen hurting Windies: Bravo

Melbourne, Dec 23. Middle-order batsman Darren Bravo says the series of defeats suffered by the West Indies in recent times are as a result of a lack of confidence by the batsmen. Bravo scored a century in the West Indies' innings and 212-run loss to Australia in the first Test on the heels of a crushing defeat at the hands of a rookie Cricket Australia XI, reports CMC. In October the Caribbean cricketers were beaten 2-0 by Sri Lanka in a Test series where Bravo was one of only two batsmen to score fifties.

“It’s just a matter of confidence,” Bravo said on Tuesday. “Coming in to this series most of our batsmen didn’t really have that confidence. We lost the series in Sri Lanka, we lost the practice game as well in Brisbane. It’s a matter of confidence”.

The West Indies were bowled out for 223 and 148 in the first Test against Australia in Hobart with the second innings highlight being Kraigg Brathwaite’s 94. In their drawn warm-up match against Victoria X1, Brathwaite followed-up his Test performance with a score of 78, Jermaine Blackwood rebounded from failing in the first Ttest to get off the mark twice with a score of 69, while Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin scored 45 and 38, respectively.

Bravo is confident the West Indies can accumulate runs against Australia once their batsmen occupy the crease. “It’s important that whenever we go to bat we spend some time out in the middle. If we spend time we’re definitely going to score runs,” said Bravo.

“Naturally we play aggressive cricket where batting is concerned. It’s just a matter of us spending time out in the middle and putting up a very good fight.” The second Test begins on Boxing Day (December 26) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Australia have added fast bowler Scott Boland to the squad as a replacement for the injured Nathan Coulter-Nile. “The Australian bowlers, they have a plan exactly how they want to get us out,” said Bravo.

“You respect the good balls and put away the bad balls. Yes they are a very good team but at the end of the day they are still humans.” “I believe the guys have that sort of resilience in them. Most of us have scored international hundreds. We have proven that we are definitely capable of playing at this level. It is just a matter of going out there and spending some time.”