DJ BRAVO A CRICKETER CUM SINGER

Dwayne John Bravo(DJ Bravo) is a West Indian cricketer, who was born in Trinidad on 7th Oct 1983. He has played all formats for West Indies and he has even captained West Indies in all three formats. DJ Bravo is a right-hand batsman and a right-arm fast bowler, in fact, he has been a great asset for teams always. He is a complete all-rounder who has the capability to deliver with bat and ball whenever the team needs it. Bravo is known for his aggressive batting at lower middle order, his sensational death bowling which consists of (impeccable slower balls, yorkers, cutters) and his extraordinary fielding. DJ Bravo has brought a revolution in T20 Cricket, especially by developing those slower deliveries which very few cricketers were proficient in doing. When it comes to T20 cricket his name is indispensable to mention. DJ BRAVO is an eminent T20 player across the world for all franchises. He is an outstanding singer too. Despite playing all formats of the game DJ Bravo chose T20 cricket as his favorite format because of wage disputes with the national cricket board. Playing franchise cricket all over the world gave him enormous money as well as fame for his exceptional performances in the shortest format of the game. 

DJ BRAVO IN DOMESTIC CRICKET CAREER

DJ Bravo made his first appearance in first-class cricket in 2002 for Trinidad And Tobago against Barbados. He scored only 11 & 16 in both innings of his debut match. He smashed his maiden first-class century in 2002 which later handed him the place West Indies Aside for the tour of England.  In 2003 against Windward Island Bravo smacked a century with the bat and took 6 for 11 with the ball which gave him the recognition of a proper all-rounder.

DJ BRAVO IN HIS ODI CAREER

DJ Bravo made his One Day International debut in 2003/04 when England toured West Indies. He grabbed two wickets for 31 runs in a match of the ODI series. His debut series was not a good one but kept improving him which helped him later on.. DJ Bravo’s One Day International career has been a roller-coaster journey. He has suffered injuries many times during his cricket career. But his injury has not stopped him from him performing. DJ Bravo has represented West Indies in 2006, 2013 champions trophy, and 2007 Cricket World Cup. He was the best performer for West Indies in the 2006 Champions Trophy with 7 wickets (average 27.56) and 164 runs (average 41. He hit an outstanding maiden ODI  century (112 runs) against England in the series, it was a second-wicket partnership with Chris Gayle of 174 runs also. The proper display of death bowling was shown by bravo full of yorkers and slowers. In his only ODI World Cup (2007) he managed to make 129 runs only with an average of 21.50 and took a good number of wickets 13. DJ Bravo couldn’t play the whole 2011 World Cup due to injury, he slipped on the deck while bowling to a South African batsman. A new issue emerged in the 2014 West Indies tour of India, West Indies renounced to play the series and left midway because of salary issues. DJ BRAVO attended the press conference and addressed the media he was surprisingly removed from the ODI squad of West Indies for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. West Indies suffered his absence in the bowling department as well as of an all-rounder. He was named in the reserve player squad of West Indies for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. DJ has played 164 ODI matches, he has scored 2968 runs with an average of 25.36. He notched 2 centuries and 10 half-centuries in his ODI career. In the bowling department, he has taken 199 wickets with 2 fifers. His best is 6/43.against Zimbabwe in 2013.

TEST CAREER OF DJ BRAVO

DJ Bravo played his first test match at Lords in 2004 against England where he was quite impressive with 55 runs and 3 wickets in the match. He took 6 for 55 with the bowl and scored 77 runs in the first innings at Old Trafford. 6/55 later became his best bowling figure in test cricket. Bravo ended the series with 16 wickets and a good total of 220 runs. He proved his worth of being an all-rounder. Bravo smacked his maiden century (107) in Antigua in the fourth test against South Africa in 2005. In his test career, Bravo has been left out many times unnecessarily. He hit his second century (113) which was much needed for Indies at Hobart against Australia in the second test after not getting a place in the first test. His innings impelled  Australia to bat in the second innings. DJ bravo fascinated everyone again in the third and final test at Adelaide with exceptional bowling  6 for 84. Bravo’s nasty bouncer rewarded him with a weird wicket of Kevin Petersen in 2007 at Old Trafford, the ball hit the helmet of Kevin Petersen and fell on timbers. Bravo has quiet bewitched records in test cricket. In 40 test matches, he has made 2200 runs with an average of 31.42 ( 3 100s & 13 50s). And has taken 86 wickets in which twice he grabbed fifer. On 31st January 2015, DJ Bravo retired from the longest format of the game.

DJ BRAVO’S T20 CAREER

DJ Bravo made his T20 debut in 2006 against New Zealand.  When the format started nobody knew that a superstar was about to dominate the shortest format of the game. T20 cricket is a format of all-rounders, where all-rounders are considered most valuable. Throughout his career, Bravo has always enhanced his cricketing skills especially yorkers and slower deliveries. He is considered one of the best slogs over bowlers of world cricket. DJ Bravo has represented West Indies in all T20 World Cups so far (2007,2009,2010,2012,2014,2016). Cricinfo picked DJ Bravo in the team of the tournament of 2009 T20 WC for his impressive all-round performance. He has been part of the T20 World cup winning West Indies team twice (2012&2016). He played most of the matches in the 2012 T20 World Cup as a batsman & delivered when needed. In the final of the 2016 T20 World Cup, he took 3/37 against England at Eden Gardens which helped West Indies to restrict England to 159 runs. DJ Bravo’s incredible death bowling assisted West Indies throughout the 2016 T20 World Cup. in October 2019 DJ Bravo announced retirement from all forms of cricket but later in 2019 he came out of retirement to play 2019 T20 World Cup.

DJ Bravo has been part of 66 T20 International games, in which he has scored 1142 runs with an average of 24.29 runs with the highest score of unbeatable 66 against India. In the bowling department, he has 52 scalps in his T20 career.

FRANCHISE CRICKET CAREER OF DJ BRAVO

IPL(INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE)

IPL was DJ Bravo’s first franchise league. He played the first 3 seasons of IPL for MUMBAI INDIANS. Later CHENNAI SUPER KINGS bought DJ Bravo in 2011 and retained him for 9  seasons except for two seasons in 2016 & 2017 where CHENNAI SUPER KINGS was banned for spot-fixing allegations. Bravo proved his worth in 2012 IPL by making 468 runs in the season with an average of 57 and a strike rate of 178. Bravo bagged the award of purple cap winner by taking 32 wickets in the 2013 IPL season with an average of 9.15. Again in 2015 he showed his brilliant bowling and won the purple cap with 26 wickets. He is the second bowler in the history of IPL to take the most number of wickets and win the purple cap twice. After the abatement of CHENNAI SUPER KINGS in 2016, he was retained for 64 million by CHENNAI SUPER KINGS in 2019. IPL was the stage that made the name prominent. He showcased his skills marvelously and after that, every franchise was eager to buy him across the world especially for his death bowling. Bravo couldn’t play all matches in the 2020 IPL season due to injury.

PAKISTAN SUPER LEAGUE

Bravo has played Pakistan Super League also. Lahore Qalandars picked him in 2016 for US$70000. his team didn’t do well and they finished the tournament in the last position. For the second season also Lahore Qalandars retained him but he didn’t play due to some unforeseen issues. Peshawar Zalmi signed him in 2018. Eventually, in 2019, he ended up on the winning side when Quetta Gladiators bought him.

OTHER FRANCHISE LEAGUE

DJ Bravo has played T20 cricket all over the world. He has played for Kent, Essex, Surrey, Middlesex in the county championship of England. In the Big Bash League of Australia Victoria, Sydney Sixers, Melbourne Renegades, and Melbourne Stars, and in Bangladesh Premier League he was part of Chittagong Vikings, Dhaka Dynamites & Comilla Victorians. DJ Bravo was part of Winnipeg Hawks in the first two editions of the Global Canada T20 League. He represented Paarl Rocks in the inaugural season of Mzansi Super League T20 Cup. he was the joint highest taker for his team with 10 wickets in 6 matches. His home franchise league is Caribbean Premier League. He has been playing for Trinbago Knight Riders since 2013.  In the 2020 season of the Caribbean Premier League, he became the first bowler to take 100 CPL wickets against St Lucia Zouks. 

DJ BRAVO’S PERSONAL LIFE 

DJ Bravo is 37 years old as of 2020. His height is 5 ft 9 inches. He has a family of six people. His father’s name is John Bravo and his mother is Joycelyn Bravo. His brother is Darren Bravo, he plays for West Indies in all formats. Regina Ramjit is his wife. DJ has two children. Dwaynice is DJ’S daughter and DJ jr is his only son. 

LET’S HAVE A LOOK AT HIS CAREER STATS

Competition	Test	ODI	T20I	FC
Matches	40	164	66	100
Runs scored	2,200	2,968	1,142	5,302
Batting average	31.42	25.36	24.29	30.64
100s/50s	3/13	2/10	0/4	8/30
Top score	113	112*	66*	197
Balls bowled	6,466	6,511	1,042	11,025
Wickets	86	199	52	177
Bowling average	39.84	29.52	28.26	33.43
5 wickets in innings	2	1	0	7
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	n/a	0
Best bowling	6/55	6/43	4/28	6/11

DJ Bravo Records

DJ Bravo is one of three players who has scored 1000 runs and taken 50 wickets in every format of the game.

He made the highest 9th wicket partnership along with Jerome Taylor(66 runs)

DJ Bravo is the first bowler to take 400 and 500 T20 wickets.

DJ Bravo’s average bowling speed is 132 to 135 Kmph through he also made 150 Kmph+ in IPL.

DJ Bravo Song List

DJ Bravo Gaan

DJ Bravo has sung several songs so far. His first song “CHAMPIONS” was released in 2016 to celebrate West Indies’ win in the 2016 T20 World Cup. It was a great hit in India. DJ has composed  “ We Are The Kings” (2018), “Asia”(2019), “ Run in The World” (2019), “Chamiya” (2020), “4 D Win” (2020), “Wake Up” (2020) also. Apart from cricket, he is very fond of music. DJ wanted to be a singer when he was young. In an interview he confessed “ he started playing cricket because his sports teacher in school was hot”.