5 current Test players who are underrated

#5 Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies)

Kraigg Brathwaite has been a capable opening batsman for the West Indies in Tests

Having played Test match cricket for 5 years, and having 29 Tests to his name, Kraigg Brathwaite’s batting average of 33.69 speaks of mediocrity. However, Brathwaite has more to him than what his stats depict. The travails of West Indies cricket over the past several years have been well chronicled, and one of the pertinent problems that the team has encountered over the past four years or so has been the lack of a solid Test match opening batsman.

Brathwaite may not have the runs to prove his credentials at the top of the order, but the patience with which he has batted over the years, and the knack for spending hours and hours at the crease makes him a capable Test batsman.Perhaps it is for that reason that the 23-year-old doesn’t represent the West Indies in any other format.

The knocks of 129 vs New Zealand at Port of Spain, 106 vs South Africa at Port Elizabeth, 116 vs England at St. George’s and 94 & 85 vs Australia at Melbourne and Sydney last year, prove that the right-handed batsman has the credentials to score runs all over the world, and his patience at the crease only adds to his capabilities with the bat. In the ongoing series against India, Brathwaite’s 74 in the first Test in Antigua came off 218 balls and he spent 291 minutes at the crease after India had scored 566/8 in the first innings.

However, Brathwaite’s presence in the side is rarely felt, as he is, more often than not, overshadowed by the more alluring members of the Test side, and even those who do not play Tests, and the West Indies have now made a name for themselves as a more than capable T20 team – given they are the two-time World T20 champions. The likes of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell and of late, Carlos Brathwaite, have made their names synonymous with West Indies cricket and thereby take the attention away from emerging Test cricketers.