CHATTOGRAM, Bangladesh, CMC – Jermaine Blackwood has been relishing his new but unfamiliar role of vice-captain and batting leader, and says one of his aims in the Test series starting next week is to inspire the inexperienced batsmen.
The audacious right-hander has been West Indies’ leading batsman in the two recent Test series and with the withdrawal of several first choice players for the two-Test series, has now been thrust into a primary role in the 15-man squad.
“I’m a very positive guy when I’m batting so I guess once some of the younger guys come out there and see me batting, some of that will just rub off on them because I’m trying to motivate them as much as possible,” Blackwood told an online media conference here yesterday.
“I’m just trying to keep the game very simple. I’ve been talking a lot to the batsmen and just trying to keep it as simple as possible, trying to [get them to] focus on each ball – one ball at a time.
“Once we can focus on one ball at a time, I don’t see why we can’t get the job done down here.”
He continued: “I can say one thing: I think this unit is a very good unit. I can see the hunger. We’ve been training very hard for the past couple weeks. I can see we’re trying new things and things are working pretty well, and I have full confidence in this batting unit to get the job done.
“John Campbell, Kraigg Brathwaite, young [Shayne] Moseley, myself and Josh [Da Silva], I think we have a decent lineup.
“And once we can go out there and stick to our game plan, I don’t see why we can’t post some good totals in this series, and I’m very confident the guys can do that.”
Blackwood has enjoyed a resurgence of his Test career that looked all but dead after he was dropped in 2017 following a run of poor scores.
The Jamaican spent 2-½ years on the sidelines before being recalled for the tour of England last year when he topped the touring side’s batting with two half-centuries, an average of 35 and was the only player to get over 200 runs.
Blackwood shone against last month on the tour of New Zealand despite West Indies suffering a whitewash in the two-Test rubber, scoring the only hundred for his side while averaging 54 to again top the batting charts.
The 29-year-old, who averages 32 from 33 Tests, said the time away from cricket had served as the ideal motivation.
“I’ve been out of the West Indies team for almost three years and on the sidelines sitting down for three years and just looking in, I got some time to reflect on my game and how I was playing and how I was getting out,” he explained.
“So I just did some work on my mental space and just went back and trained very hard. I started to train twice a day, hit the gym every day, put in a lot of hard work, trying to stay as fit as possible, and just trying to come back as strong as possible.
“One of the things I changed a lot is my shot selection. I am [much] better with my shot selection [now]. I am starting to understand my game very [well] and I think that is a positive for me. I think going forward I just want to continue to do the same.”
West Indies, led by interim captain Kraigg Brathwaite in the absence of regular skipper Jason Holder, take on Bangladesh in the first Test bowling off here next Wednesday.
