Cricket West Indies’ Chief Selector Roger Harper says that the decision to relieve Kraigg Brathwaite of the Test vice-captaincy post is in order for him to focus more on his batting.
Harper made this revelation during a press conference via Zoom earlier this week.
According to the chief selector, “We thought it important at this time for Kraigg Brathwaite, who has been vice-captain for the Test team for a while, to just pay a little more attention, focus a little more on his batting.”
Harper pointed out that the opener has struggled for form recently but had seemingly triggered a turnaround during the England tour back in July.
“He has not been in the best of form for a little while,” said Harper.
“I think he began to get himself together on the England tour. We wanted to build on this. We thought that relieving him of that responsibility would allow him to focus some more on his batting,” he added.
Speaking of Brathwaite’s replacement, Roston Chase, Harper argued that the all-rounder was picked ahead of the rest due to his strong commitment to the game.
“Roston is a player with a fair amount of experience. He is a player who thinks deeply about his cricket and is very serious about it and we think he is tactically aware and is willing to share his ideas and experience with his team mates and discuss things with his coaches and captain…We think he will be able to give Jason [Holder] that sort of support on the field where he would give ideas and make suggestions and also show some leadership off the field as well,” Harper explained.
