Andre Russell is now West Indies' Chris Gayle and Brian Lara in T20Is, hails Dwayne Bravo

West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell is the most valuable commodity in the World when it comes to T20 cricket and power-hitting given his match-winning abilities with the bat and ball alike. That is the reason his fellow countryman Dwayne Bravo heaped him with praises.

Bravo, a class act in his own rights, compared him to batting stalwarts of the country Chris Gayle and Brian Lara while drawing parallels of his destructive hitting. Bravo was glad that he didn’t have to bowl to Russell in international games and hit all around the park by him.

“He’s the best in the world. It’s the same I used to say of Chris Gayle when Chris Gayle was in his prime - we are happy to have him representing us, we didn’t have to come up and bowl against him in an international match. It’s the same with Andre Russell. Andre Russell now is our Chris Gayle, is our Brian Lara, in the T20 format. He is the superstar,” Bravo was quoted by Hindustan Times.

The stylish all-rounder shared that the team management acknowledges the fact that a lot of work needs to be done on the side to make the side a force to reckon in the shorter format and defend their title in Australia later this year. Bravo added that they looked to start with the Sri Lanka series and their series win was a warning for others that the defending champions are on a roll.

“Prior to that [T20I series in Sri Lanka], we weren’t really consistent as a team over the years in T20 cricket. With the 3-0 loss in the ODI series, we T20 guys had a chat among ourselves along with the management and made a pledge that we want to start back winning series. We said we wanted to be back being the most dominant team in the T20 format."

“We have produced some of the best players in the world and when we are together in the same team, we have to stamp our authority, and to get the cricketing world to respect West Indies cricket again and especially West Indies’ T20 team. We said, ‘All hands on deck, let’s start with this Sri Lanka series and make sure we send the message.’ Yeah, that’s what we did,” Bravo signed off.