ON THIS DAY
Follow UsHitting his teens in the early and mid-90s, Dwayne John Bravo idolised Brian Lara like another kid growing up in the West Indies. However, little did Bravo know that destiny planned something way more exciting for him.
Born on October 7, 1983, in Trinidad and Tobago, Dwayne Bravo gained fame as a medium pacer and a balanced batsman and made his ODI debut for West Indies against England on April 18, 2004. However, despite his skills tailor-made for white-ball cricket, it was in the longest format that Bravo would get international recognition.
Debuting in the Tests during the West Indies tour of England in 2004, Bravo would tally 44 runs and take three wickets at the Lord’s. He turned heads with a gritty 77 in Manchester when everyone else around him struggled. Bravo would return in the second innings with his Test career’s best figures of 6/77, albeit in a losing cause.
Bravo got his maiden Test century a year later against South Africa, but the series got marred by racism controversy between Graeme Smith and Bravo. Nothing was proven in court, but Bravo got huge traction as a human rights campaigner.
Bravo remained mostly injured and inconsistent for the next few months before starring for West Indies in the 2006 Champions Trophy. He would take seven wickets and tally 164 runs in that tournament, including an unbeaten 112 against England. It was in this tournament that Bravo’s slower yorkers came into tremendous effect.
His skills brought him big suitors when the Indian Premier League (IPL) started in 2008 as Mumbai Indians (MI) picked him up. However, after two dismal seasons, he couldn’t fit in that system and moved to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to play under MS Dhoni. Thus started a tryst that would define Bravo’s cricketing career.
Bravo would take 32 wickets with an average of 9.15 to win the purple cap in IPL 2013. Two years later, in IPL 2015, he would win the purple cap again by taking 26 wickets. Bravo remains one of only two bowlers in the IPL to win two purple caps, and he was named in the all-time Cricinfo IPL XI in the tournament’s 10-year anniversary.
Bravo was bought back when CSK returned from suspension in 2018, and although he wasn’t as prolific this time, his death over bowling won CSK crucial matches.
When Bravo retired from IPL in 2022, he had 1560 runs and 183 wickets, and he sits only behind Yuzvendra Chahal on the list of leading wicket-takers in the tournament.
What IPL did to Bravo was make him a T20 franchise sensation. Subsequently, he went on to play for Sydney Sixers, Chittagong Kings, Trinbago Knight Riders, Melbourne Renegades, Lahore Qalandars, Dhaka Dynamites, Peshawar Zalmi, Maratha Arabians, Melbourne Stars, Quetta Gladiators and many more. Bravo has won a whopping 15 franchise league titles like IPL, Pakistan Super League, Caribbean Premier League and others.
West Indies cricket board’s continuous tiff with its players due to inconsistent payments led Bravo to distance himself from the national team early in his career. Nonetheless, Bravo played in seven World Cups for his nation, winning two of them and captaining the national side intermittently.
In a career that spanned over 15 years and 263 days, Bravo was a crucial fixture across all three formats. He has 2200 Test runs, 2968 in ODIs and 1255 in T20Is. Though he has only five international centuries and 363 international wickets, Bravo’s T20 career stands out. He has scored 6905 runs and taken 619 wickets in the T20 leagues.
Bravo was the first bowler to reach 500 T20 wickets and remained a tremendous utility player for every team he played for. Whether it be his explosive batting, shrewd bowling for athletic fielding at the boundary ropes, Bravo became a necessity where he went. Needless to mention, his on-field antics made him a popular entertainer for the fans as well as TV channels.
