Brathwaite shows appetite for long haul

When he finally emerged from his shell to sweep Mahmudullah for four in the penultimate over of the second day's play at St Vincent, Kraigg Brathwaite became the tenth batsman to score a Test double-hundred before his 22nd birthday. The significance of his innings, apart from its impact on West Indies' first innings against Bangladesh, is that it highlights Brathwaite's proclivity for Test cricket, when compared to many other batsmen of his generation.

The last man to make a Test double-century at the age of 21 before Brathwaite was South Africa's Jacques Rudolph, in his debut innings against Bangladesh, more than 11 years ago. Six batsmen went past the 150-mark between Rudolph and Brathwaite, with AB de Villiers getting closest.

Since 2004, only four batsmen under 22 averaged more than Brathwaite in Tests - Alastair Cook, de Villiers, Tamim Iqbal and Nasir Hossain. Four batsmen have passed the 1000-run mark before turning 22; Brathwaite is 163 short, but has 85 days to have a crack.

Brathwaite's case is special in some ways. West Indies have kept him exclusively for the longer format. He is playing his 13th Test and has not played a single T20, even at domestic level. He has played 59 first-class matches and only 14 domestic one-dayers. Some may call him a restricted and overly-cautious batsman, but that's what Brathwaite is good at, and that's what West Indies need, as Shivnarine Chanderpaul winds down his career.

With so much emphasis on batting aggressively and playing at a higher tempo in modern cricket, it is refreshing to see a young batsman standing his ground and being the batsman he wants to be. From a young age, Brathwaite had decided to bat this way.

A few months after his Test debut in 2011, Brathwaite was quite keen to state his target of playing 100 Tests for West Indies.

"I want to play at least a 100 Tests," Brathwaite had said then. "I enjoy being at the crease because once I'm out there, that's where the runs are scored. I know that if I stay long, bad balls will come and I can capitalise on them. The best feeling is to get a hundred."

He was 18 at the time and had scored a single fifty in three Tests. But just before the series against India in November 2011, he had impressed against Bangladesh with his doggedness. "I used to look for boundaries when I was playing Under-13, but by the next two years I started to buckle down," he had said. "I took advice from my coach and my father. I started batting long and occupying the crease.

"Obviously I want to play T20 cricket in the future, but right now I'm concentrating on scoring runs in Test cricket. As I get older, the forearms will get stronger, in a couple of years maybe. But I want to see myself getting settled in Test cricket first."

This approach could hurt Brathwaite's prospects in this age of T20 cricket, if he isn't able to smoothly transition into the shorter formats. But judging by his batting in this Test so far, he seems unflustered by a lot of these temptations.

Depending on how West Indies approach the third day, Brathwaite has a major landmark in front of him. He can think about 300, given the pitch and his almost complete control over the Bangladesh's bowling attack, and if he does get there, he will be the second youngest to do so.