PORT-OF-SPAIN-Ex­pect "some­thing spe­cial" from Dar­ren Bra­vo dur­ing the up­com­ing sec­ond Dig­i­cel Test, start­ing to­mor­row at the his­toric Queen's Park Oval. The gift­ed left-han­der was con­fi­dent and in a pos­i­tive frame of mind, as he pre­pared to play his first Test on home soil. The 23-year-old, along with his broth­er Dwayne and cousin, West In­dies bat­ting leg­end Bri­an Lara are mem­bers of the Queen's Park Crick­et Club, so he will be play­ing at his home base. "For me this a re­al­ly spe­cial oc­ca­sion to play my first Test at home," said Bra­vo. "I've played a few Tests in oth­er parts of the World, but for me, it is a great feel­ing to get the chance to play at a ground where I grew up and played most of my crick­et from a very young age. "I know the pitch and the way things hap­pen here, so I'm quite com­fort­able go­ing in­to the match. I got two starts in the first Test over in Bar­ba­dos, so I'm look­ing to kick on here at home and get a ma­jor score, a big score. I be­lieve some­thing spe­cial is around the cor­ner."

Bra­vo made his Test de­but in Sri Lan­ka back two No­vem­bers ago and has been the most out­stand­ing bats­man in the team since then. Last year, he made three Test hun­dreds in the space of a month-in the fi­nal Test against Bangladesh at Mir­pur, and the sec­ond and third Tests against In­dia at Kolkata and Mum­bai re­spec­tive­ly. He has now scored 1,238 runs at an av­er­age of 51.58 in 14 Test match­es. He said he spoke re­cent­ly to his el­der broth­er and Lara, and they of­fered some wise words of ad­vice. "I am qui­et­ly con­fi­dent that I will do well," he said. "I am tim­ing the ball nice­ly and I'm quite hap­py with how I am play­ing at the mo­ment. "I got some ad­vice from my el­der broth­er, Dwayne, and from Bri­an, and they told me just to make sure I as­sess the con­di­tions, look to build an in­nings, and play to my strength. This is what has worked for me and I will con­tin­ue to do what is re­quired for the team."

Bra­vo added: "Last match in Bar­ba­dos, I was up­set when I got out. I was dis­ap­point­ed when I got out. I was 'there', I was 'set', and I was try­ing to bat the team in­to a re­spectable po­si­tion, then I fol­lowed a wide ball. It was un­for­tu­nate so I will look to cor­rect that when I get that next op­por­tu­ni­ty." "We felt we gave a good ac­count of our­selves in Bar­ba­dos, but we just let it slip on that fourth day. The good thing about it is that we know what to ex­pect. We know they will come hard at us, but we have showed every­one that we have what it takes to match them and be com­pet­i­tive." Bra­vo al­so looked sharp in the out­field and held two sharp catch­es at sec­ond slip off the faster bowlers dur­ing the first Dig­i­cel Test in Bar­ba­dos. "I did not do so well in the field last year, so in the off time I went away and did a lot of work on my field­ing with the coach­es," he said. "There is still some work to do, but I was hap­py I was able to con­tribute not just with the bat, but in the field. I am work­ing hard and I want suc­cess in all ar­eas of my game."