Dwayne Bravo

Dwayne John Bravo (born 7 October 1983) is a former Trinidadian cricketer, a former captain of the West Indies cricket team and the current bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings.

A right arm seam bowling all-rounder, Bravo is well known for his aggressive lower-order batting and for his bowling in the final overs of a match.

During his prime, he was regarded as one of the best death bowlers in T20 Cricket.

He also performs as a singer.

In domestic cricket, Bravo has played for his native Trinidad and Tobago since 2002.

He has played for a number of other teams in leagues around the world.

Bravo made his first-class debut for Trinidad and Tobago against Barbados in 2002, opening the innings and scoring 15 and 16 but not bowling.

He scored his maiden first-class century a month later and was included in the West Indies A squad for their tour of England in 2002.

In early 2003 he scored another century but it was a spell of bowling in which he took 6–11 against the Windward Islands that brought him to prominence as an all-rounder.

Bravo made his One Day International debut against England in their 2003/04 tour of the Caribbean, in a match in which he failed to bat but took 2–31 with the ball.

Between 2004 and 2021, Bravo played 40 in Test matches, 164 One Day Internationals and 91 Twenty20 Internationals for the West Indies.

He was a key member of the West Indies team that won the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 and the 2016 ICC World Twenty20.

In the West Indies tour of England in 2004 Bravo made his Test debut when he was selected for the First Test at Lord's in which he scored 44 and 10 and took three wickets.

He finished the Test series with 16 wickets and a total of 220 runs with his most impressive performance at Old Trafford in a match in which he was the top scorer in the first innings with 77 followed by an 6 for 55 performance with the ball.

The latter remains his best bowling figures in Test cricket.

During a Test series against South Africa in 2005, Bravo scored his maiden century – 107 before getting out to Mark Boucher – in the fourth Test in Antigua, but that was overshadowed when he accused South African Graeme Smith of directing a racist comment at him.

At the subsequent hearing no evidence could be found and charges were dropped against Smith, who immediately demanded an apology from Bravo.

Bravo, backed by the West Indies Cricket Board, refused to do so and received a hail of criticism from an indignant South African press while finding support at home as a human rights campaigner.

On the West Indies tour of Australia in 2005, Bravo was controversially not picked for the first Test at Brisbane in which the West Indies were beaten convincingly.

He was recalled for the second Test in Hobart and made a superb 113, after coming in at a very difficult stage for the West Indies.

His innings lifted the West Indies and helped them regain some pride, forcing the Australians to bat for a second time in the match.

In the third and final match of the series at Adelaide, he bowled a superb spell in the Australians first innings taking 6 for 84.

In West Indies tour of New Zealand in early 2006 Bravo strained his left side in the Twenty20 game at the start of the tour and was unable to bowl but still played in all three tests as a specialist batsman.

His selection showed how far he had come in the previous two years and how crucial he had become to the West Indies team.

After a disappointing series in India Bravo returned to top form in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 when he took 7 wickets at an average of 27.57 and scored 164 runs at an average of 41 although most of the runs were scored in a dead rubber match with England in which he made his first ever ODI century scoring a majestic 112 not out as part of a second wicket stand of 174 with Chris Gayle.

His bowling contained some lethal slower-paced yorkers with which he dismissed Michael Clarke and Chris Read.

During the Third Test against England at Old Trafford on 9 June 2007, Bravo acted as an emergency wicket-keeper in place of Denesh Ramdin who had gone off for treatment after being hit on the head with the ball.

In the same Test he took the wicket of England batsman Kevin Pietersen with a bouncer which struck the batsman's helmet knocking the helmet off of his head onto the stumps and dislodging the bails causing Pietersen to be given out hit wicket.

Bravo played in all of West Indies games at the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

He had a disappointing World Cup scoring 129 runs at an average of 21.50 and although he took 13 wickets at 27.76 his economy rate was 5.56.

Against South Africa he conceded 69 runs off 7 overs including 18 off his first over.

He played in all West Indies games at the 2009 T20I World Cup and was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by ESPNcricinfo for the 2009 T20I World Cup.

He was ruled out from the 2011 Cricket World Cup in India due to the knee injury when he slipped at the wicket while bowling to South African batsman on 24 February 2011 at Delhi.

He was rested for four weeks and could not participate further in the tournament.

He took the winning catch in the 2012 Final.

He played in all of West Indies games at the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, which the West Indies won.

He played most of the tournament as a batsman as injury prevented him from bowling.

For his performances in 2012, he was named in the T20I XI of the year by ESPNcricinfo.

In 2014, during a tour of India, Bravo was spokesman for the players during players strike which resulted in the tour being cancelled half way.

After initially announcing his retirement from international cricket in October 2018, Bravo came out of retirement in December 2019 in preparation for the 2020 T20 World Cup.