West Indies are comparatively young; their probable top-six in the Lord’s Test have played 10 Tests or fewer as well. And, captain Kraigg Brathwaite wants the young batters to do is “think big” and reach for the stars as well.

“My advice to all the younger boys in the group, like Mikyle making his debut, is don’t just expect to play for West Indies, expect to be the first to score 30 hundreds. You gotta think big, you know. Don’t think too small,” Brathwaite said on the eve of the first Test at Lord’s. “We have our plans, so believe in your plan. And enjoy it as well. Because it’s always a great series playing here in England. And we truly look forward to it.”

However, Kraigg Brathwaite also added that it’s a young set of batters who need to be given the space to learn and improve as well as check what works best for them as well.

“My general style is taking my time, and that’s me,” he said. “All the batters must bat their game, and back their plan. That’s what we will do, we focus on ourselves. Making sure we fight is very important. But every batter has a different style and one thing we urge is for guys to have their plans and back yourself.”

“It’s a young group, especially the batsmen, they have a lot of time to learn because obviously playing Test cricket it takes a while to really understand. You’re always learning on the job, but it’s a very decent team, for sure. I think they’re young and exciting. Kirk McKenzie got a few fifties in Australia, which was good, Hodge got a nice 80 (71) as well, and Alick got some confidence to show he can do it consistently. The more games they play, the better. They have a lot of talent and we are fully 100% behind them,” he again shared.

However, West Indies are coming off a historic Test win in Brisbane earlier this year and Brathwaite also wants his team to look forward and not get too caught up with the past as well.

“It was a big positive for us to get a win, because it shows that we could get the job done. Obviously the key for us as a group is to do it consistently,” Brathwaite added. “We could take a lot of stuff from that game as batsmen, because we had some important partnerships. Then the bowlers were outstanding. Shamar was the star. But pretty much all the bowlers put in a very good effort and we caught well as well. But it’s history, it’s gone. We got to look forward to this, then the other Test matches in this series but it at least gives a start that we could get the job done. We’ve just got to believe in ourselves.”