Coping with stardom has been tough for Brathwaite
“T20 is a good spectator sport but in Test cricket you get to test yourself."
A few months ago, Carlos Brathwaite’s name would have evoked nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders. But, after hitting four consecutive sixes to help West Indies win the ICC World Twenty20 final in Kolkata against England earlier this month, he has become quite a popular figure in the 2016 Indian Premier League without even playing a match.
Ahead of his team Delhi Daredevils’ first match of the season, against Kolkata Knight Riders, Brathwaite admitted that it had been challenging dealing with his newfound stardom, and despite all the glitz and glamour of T20 cricket, Test cricket remained the pinnacle for him.
“It has been a bit of a challenge in terms of constant interviews and reliving the four sixes each and every day, to get off the hype that I have been on,” he said on Saturday (April 9). “In the last couple of days, we have been training to get the distractions out of the way and train hard with our team-mates to be in the mental space and capacity to give 100% on the field.”
Brathwaite’s initial shot at fame was not on the back of his heroics in the 20-over game but in Test cricket. Selected in the side for West Indies’ tour of Australia, he made 59 and 2 on debut in Melbourne and followed it up with 69 off 71 balls in the next Test in Sydney.