"If I get 100 singles, it's still a hundred," Kraigg Brathwaite said after his hundred at Headingley in 2017.
In an era where West Indians have turned into T20 superstars, Brathwaite turns for one.
I like to know what players were like as kids. Did they start as a fast bowler, a batter, a keeper? What was their backstory? How did the cricketer in front of me get here?
With Brathwaite, it was easy to find a lot of footage of him as a kid. He was a wunderkind who made a scary about of runs in Barbados. There were clips from local news with his cricket, an interview with him as a young player, and some highlights packages of regional tournaments.
One thing was clear through all of it: Brathwaite is the same player now he was when he was a teenager. There is no Azhar Ali or Stuart Broad like transformation. He wasn't a stylish young player who has reined himself in. At 14 he nudged, nurdled, and outlasted bowlers, and he is still doing it.
It's hilarious to see him compared to his teammates in some of those childhood games. Them trying to clear boundaries, give themselves room or push the scoring and getting out. He just never played like that; there were no attacking instincts to shave off; he was a single machine from birth. Well, from 12, when he made a conscious effort to be more like Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
What kind of teenager takes a look in the mirror and says, you know what I need, more patience and less shots. That is a special kinda kid, and we're seeing that at the Test level.
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