159 runs from three innings at an average
of 53 and at a strike rate of 167.53. Those
were Brandon King’s returns as he led
the West Indies to a comprehensive 3-0
series win at Jamiaica’s Sabina Park against
the visiting South Africans.
Played as a virtual warmup for the
forthcoming T20 World Cup at which both
teams will be much favored participants,
the one-sided win would have served as
a most timely confidence booster for the
hosts. Even more so for King, charged as he
will be with the onerous responsibility of opening the
West Indies T20 World Cup batting.
The overly confident manner in which King batted
throughout the South Africa series would have been
extremely pleasing to his teammates. Indeed to all
West Indian cricket fans, hopeful as they are that
the Caribbean region’s joint hosting of this year’s
ICC t20 World Cup will eventually end with their
triumphing as champions for an unprecedented
third time.
For King to be leading that charge at the top
of the West Indies batting order will be a most natural extension of his continuous
demonstrated excellence at
the highest levels of Caribbean
cricket.Born December 16, 1994
in Kingston, Jamaica, Brandon
King got his start as a solid middle order
batter for Jamaica before a
promotion to the top order in the
CPL unlocked his power-hitting
potential, and culminated in a
call-up to West Indies’ white-ball
side.
King made his first-class debut
for Jamaica in 2014-15 but had a
breakout season in 2018-19, when
he racked up 630 runs in seven
games, landing him a middle order
slot in the West Indies A
side. King also debuted in the
CPL in 2017 with St Kitts and Nevis
Patriots, but flew under the radar
until his switch to Guyana Amazon
Warriors in 2019, where coach
Johan Botha spotted his potential
and bumped him up the order.
He responded with 496 runs in 12
games, the most by anyone in the
tournament that year, at a strike
rate of 149, including an unbeaten
132 against Barbados Tridents,
then the highest individual score in
the CPL.
A step up to the national squad
seemed the natural order of
things, but though King produced
acceptable, if not earth-shattering
performances in limited-overs
series against Afghanistan, India,
Sri Lanka and New Zealand, he
was dropped from the side in late
2020. On his recall a year later,
he scored fifties in T20Is against
Pakistan and England, and an
unbeaten 58 and 91 in an ODI
series win against the Netherlands