“He’ll do a lot for West Indies cricket”: Skipper Brathwaite on debutant Alick Athanaze

Roseau [Dominica], July 15 (ANI): West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite on Friday hailed debutant Alick Athanaze as the player who will do a lot for West Indies cricket in the future.

While Yashavi Jaiswal (171) stood out for the Indian team and was named the man of the match following his impressive debut Test ton.

Athanaze stood out for the hosts compared to the other players with bat and ball. His 47 in the first innings drove the hosts to a total of 150. In both innings, he fell to Ravichandran Ashwin’s spin prowess.

With the ball, he got the better of Indian skipper Rohit Sharma as he dismissed the batter on the next ball after crossing the three-digit mark.

After witnessing his promising performance Brathwaite said in the post-match conference, ” He had a very good start, the way he batted he showed he loves playing. He did a job for us with the ball as well. His future is bright and he has a strong mind. He will do a lot for West Indies cricket.”

He further went on to thank the Dominica crowd for supporting them in a Test match where they fell short with the bat.

While talking about their shortcomings with the bat, Brathwaite took the responsibility and expressed his disappointment in his failure to score runs and lead his team from the front.

“I really want to thank the Dominica crowd for coming out. It was playing quite good on day one, we let ourselves down with the bat. It wasn’t spinning a lot. What disappointed me was I didn’t get any runs. It is my job to lead from the front. First innings, we lost too many wickets, and as a senior guy I didn’t lead the way,” Brathwaite added.

Finally, he revealed how challenging it was for the batters to face the spin duo of Ashwin and Jadeja.

“It is tough, they have good fields set. You need to have the right balance between defending and trying to score. We didn’t execute the shots we wanted to, and we need to learn to use the bat more,” Brathwaite signed off.

West Indies will face India in the second Test on July 20 at Queen’s Park Oval.