Dwayne Bravo

Full Name     : Dwayne James John Bravo 

Date of Birth : 7th October 1983

Place of Birth: Santa Cruz, Trinidad 

Nick Name     : Donnie Darko 

Height        : 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 

Batting Style : Right-Hhanded 

Bowling Style : Right Arm Medium Fast 

Role          : All Rounder 

Test Debut    : 22 July 2004 v England 

ODI Debut     : 18 April 2004 v England 

Dwayne James John Bravo is a West Indian cricketer. A right-handed pace bowler, Bravo is expected to play a significant role in attempts by the West Indies to return to international prominence in the sport.

Bravo is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler who has already become one of the West Indies' more reliable one-day bowlers with the ability to contain batsmen towards the end of the innings.

Bravo played for the Mumbai Indians, and was later signed by the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. Bravo also plays for the Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League.

Debuts 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.  Dwayne Bravo 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. 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.  Dwayne Bravo  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 a 6 for 55 performance with the ball. The latter remains his best bowling figures in Test cricket.

Controversy

In his next Test series against South Africa in 2005 he scored his maiden century - 107 before getting out to Mark Boucher - in the fourth Test in Antigua, but that was overshadowed when he accused opposition captain 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 the young all-rounder. Bravo, backed by the West Indies Cricket Board, refused to do so and received a hail of criticism from an angry South African press while finding support at home as a human rights campaigner.

2005–06On 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.  Dwayne Bravo  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.  Dwayne Bravo  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 including the wickets of Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist.

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

2006–07

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

Bravo had a disappointing 2007 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.

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.

Test Centuries

The following table gives a summary of the Test centuries scored by Dwayne Bravo.

The column title Match refers to the Match number of the player's career 

Test centuries of Dwayne Bravo 

 Runs Match Against City/country Venue Year 

[1] 107 13 South Africa St John's, Antigua Antigua Recreation Ground 2005 

[2] 113 15 Australia Hobart, Australia Bellerive Oval 2005 

[3] 104 33 Australia Adelaide, Australia Adelaide Oval 2009 

Indian Premier League

Dwayne Bravo played for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League for the first three seasons.  Dwayne Bravo was picked up by the Chennai Super Kings during 2011 IPL Auctions.

ICC World Cup 2011. Dwayne Bravo was ruled out from the World Cup 2011 outfit due to the knee injury when he slipped at the wicket while bowling to South African batsman on 24th February at Delhi.  Dwayne Bravo was rested for four weeks and could not participate further in the tournament.