Brathwaite honored, full of praise for team after receiving ICC award
Brathwaite honored, full of praise for team after receiving ICC award
Kraigg Brathwaite sees his inclusion as a member of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Test Team of the Year as “just the beginning” of better things to come. The West Indies captain was on Tuesday named as a member of the Team in the annual awards for 2022. Brathwaite had a stellar year which started when he was the series top-scorer as West Indies beat England in March to win the newly minted Richards-Botham trophy.
Brathwaite hit a half-century in each of the first two Tests against England as well as a heroic 160 in the first innings of the second Test – his first Test century on home soil in Barbados – in an individual performance which spanned three days. He returned in the second innings to make an unbeaten half century to secure a draw.
“I’m very privileged and honoured to be named as a member of the Test team. I have been putting in lots of hard work and the hard work will continue here in Zimbabwe where we are preparing for the two Test in a few days’ time,” he said. “One of the outstanding performances for the year was the series win against England at home. It was my first time as captain against England and we worked really hard to beat them on our home soil… that was fantastic from a team perspective, and for me the big moment of the year.”
The right-hander scored 94 and 51 in the first innings of each of the Test wins over Bangladesh in June in Antigua and Saint Lucia. He then showed his class with 174 runs in the match at the Optus Stadium in Perth against Australia in November on the eve of his birthday. This included a superb rearguard of 110 and during this knock he reached 5,000 career runs. In total he hit 687 runs in 14 innings in the year, averaging 62.45 runs per innings.
West Indies arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday and will open the upcoming tour with a three-day warm-up match against a local side set from Saturday 28 to Monday 30 January at Bulawayo Athletic Club. Both Test matches will be played at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, with the first Test from 4 to 8 February, and the second match from 12 to 16 February. All matches start at 10am local time (4am Eastern Caribbean/3am Jamaica).
The last Test Series between Zimbabwe and the West Indies was also played at Queens Sports Club in October 2017. West Indies won the two-match Series 1-0, winning the first game by 117 runs with the second Test ending in a draw.