Twenty-four-year-old Shimron Hetmyer is considered the leader of the West Indies batting attack, all-rounder Dwayne Bravo revealed in the early hours of Sunday after their second win over Australia in the five-match T20I series.
In Saturday’s second match of the series, the duo shared in a record-beating 103-run partnership, the highest fourth-wicket stand by West Indies in the format.
The left-handed Hetmyer starred with a well-constructed career-best 61 from 36 balls which featured four sixes and two fours. Bravo on the other end, saw West Indies to the end of their 20-over quota, hitting three sixes and one four to finish on 47 not out from 34 balls.
“Everyone knows how important and how talented he [Hetmyer] is, “ said Bravo. “Sometimes we as players, as team mates get disappointed when he does something that is not called for but he is the leader of our batting group,” the all-rounder disclosed in reference to the Guyanese’s performance in the first two T20Is of the series.
Bravo, a veteran of 484 T20s added, “We want to teach him to understand how to construct an innings, get a good start, bat deep, think about the team, don’t think about yourself and we know once he is there in the backend he has the ability to be as dangerous as anyone in the world.”
Bravo welcomed the performance of Hetmyer and the entire batting line-up, pointing out that the side was inspired from a meeting with head coach before the match and dug deep to curb their aggression. The 37-year-old reminded the team that the batting has not done well in the last nine innings and needed to deliver.
“I reminded the guys that with the last nine T20 games, we haven’t done well with the bat and we have to send a strong message and prove to ourselves that regardless of what people say, we are still the best team and T20 players in the world and all it takes is one good batting game and we know we have the potential and if we bat our true potential we will get more scores like what we had today,” Bravo disclosed.
