It is, quite frankly, his ability to win matches for his sides on a consistent basis. Not just through his bowling, but through his batting and sharp fielding as well, Bravo has been able to turn matches on their heads and has created a significant impact on the side.
Statistically speaking, out of the 295 matches that he has played, 163 have been in a winning cause, wherein he has picked up 217 wickets at an economy rate of 7.40 and a stupendous average of 18.45. Out of these games, 80 have been won when Bravo bowled in the second innings, picking up 108 wickets at an economy rate of 7.02 and an even better average of 16.67.
In the matches that the Chennai Super Kings, the most successful franchise Bravo has been associated with, have won with the Caribbean in the playing XI, he has picked up 56 wickets from 45 matches at an economy rate of 7.64 and an average of 20.23.
The performances go a notch higher when we consider his performances for Trinidad and Tobago (now Trinbago Knight Riders) in the CPL, wherein in a winning cause he has picked up 30 wickets from 23 games at 18.33 and conceding runs at 6.47 runs per over.
Clearly, Bravo knows how to win matches for his side, and these records, given the number of matches that he has played, have surpassed the records created by all of his fellow bowlers.
Slower deliveries: The new game-changers
In an era where fast bowlers are bowling slower and slower, and the slower bowlers are darting fast missiles, Bravo has brought a sort of freshness to his game through the plethora of slower deliveries that he has up his sleeve.
The off-cutter, the leg-cutter, the back-of-the-hand delivery, and the cross-seam delivery had been traditionally used by fast bowlers for years, but with Bravo, it hasn’t been just that. For each over, Bravo supposedly has 12 slower balls in his arsenal, each one as deadly as the other.
Now, he has started combining the lack of pace with his immaculate line and length and has started manufacturing deliveries that fox the batsmen due to their slowness, invite the shot due to the length of the ball, and then bamboozle them as if it was some sort of a ‘hit-baiting.’
The 32-year-old has variations of the slower bouncer and the slow yorker, both of which have been extremely hard to put away, and latter has emerged out as the slower version of Lasith Malinga’s toe-crushers, the ones you knew were coming your way, but there was only little that you could do about it.
The dismissal of David Miller, the captain of the Kings XI Punjab in their match against the Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016 was an example of just how unplayable the slower yorker could be.
Bravo holds the seam in different positions, and if the wicket is slightly on the slower side, his variations could potentially be game-defining deliveries. Almost all the deliveries that he bowls now are slow in pace, and despite the fact that the batsman knows what’s coming his way, there isn’t much that he can do about it.
This is what makes him an excellent death bowler, especially in T20 cricket, where a good death-ball bowler could also be a match-winner. In a format with sudden changes in momentum, the ability to maintain pressure on the opposition over after over is gold dust.
That is the reason why Bravo has been such a find for the West Indies and is heavily in demand across T20 franchises world over.
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