WI's Kraigg Braithwaite speaks on playing 100 Tests, calls his journey "pretty tough"

St' George [Grenada], July 2 (ANI): Ahead of the second Test against Australia, former West Indies skipper and batter Kraigg Braithwaite, set to become 10th WI player to feature in 100 Tests, said that his journey has been "pretty though" in white clothing and he never thought he would get to score a century for his team.

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The second Test between the West Indies, the hosts and Australia will be at St George from Thursday onwards. WI is trailing 0-1 in the three-match series following a 159-run loss in the first Test.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo ahead of the Test, Kraigg said about his accomplishment, "It means everything. Words to describe it would be pretty tough. You always want to play for the West Indies as a youngster, but to play 100 Tests was a dream. I will never forget when I was teenager, I was 14 years old, I would have done an interview and they asked me what my goals were. I remember one of my goals was to play 100 Tests."

"I think it's quite amazing to go through the journey of 14 years playing for West Indies and seeing that goal come to fruition. I just want to be a role model, to hopefully inspire even just one youngster in the Caribbean to set their goals from a young age. Whether it is 100 Tests, 300 one-dayers, playing in all the franchises around the world, whichever it may be, the key is to set a goal and work extremely hard throughout, through the ups and downs, to achieve it," he added.

In 99 Tests so far, he has scored 5,943 runs at an average of 32.83, with 12 centuries and 31 fifties. His best score is 212. His Test career has been filled with many gems, a century against Pakistan at debut in 2011, in 2016 against Pakistan, when he became the first opener ever to stay not out in both innings of a Test at Sharjah, that to in a win, a century and fifty against England at Bridgetown in 2022, which saw him face 673 balls across both innings, the most by a West Indies player in a Test match.

Speaking about his first Test ton against New Zealand in 2014, three years after his debut against Pakistan, he said he thought it was "not realistic".

"Playing the first Test was not the easiest (scores of 15 and 0). To say it at that time, that I would play 100, would be pretty hard. But from scoring my first hundred [against New Zealand in 2014] - I never thought I would score a hundred for West Indies, I never thought I was that good, even though I was inspired to want to play - that really helped me get the confidence to go on," he said.

However, the batter has been battling form struggles for a better part of the 2020s decade. In the previous 2023-25 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, he scored 586 runs at an average of just 22.53 in 13 Tests, with just three fifties in 26 innings.

Despite all that, the batter still "has that belief and feels ready and rating".

"I think it is just an example of what Test cricket is; it is a grind, especially as an opener, it is never easy. You always have your ups and downs, so it's about staying strong and believing in yourself. Test cricket is all about being mentally strong. I do believe I have those periods left in me," he added.

Speaking on if opening is now more difficult and if pitches are doing more tricks, Braithwaite said that he does not think pitches are doing "anything different to normal" and playing in Caribbean is not easy as pitches are early on "a bit slow and the ball gets a bit of a nip".

"But I would not say the pitches have changed. I think the challenges as an opener still remain, regarding fielding for whether it's 90 overs or 100 overs and having to run off for five minutes to change, then face world-class bowlers. Kudos to the bowling around the world. Each team pretty much has quality fast bowlers. So it is always a mental grind for openers," he added.

The collective batting average worldwide as an opener was 35.16 during 2010-19 as per ESPNCricinfo, which has declined to 32.98 in the 2020s decade. (ANI)

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