Dewald Brevis 'oozes confidence' and is 'proper', says Windies T20I skipper Shai Hope

For the past month Shai Hope has enjoyed one of the best seats in the house watching Dewald Brevis go about his work in Betway SA20.

But now the Pretoria Capitals teammates will be on opposite sides when the West Indies face the Proteas in a three-match T20I series, starting in Paarl on Tuesday. 

Brevis, fresh off a scintillating century in the Betway SA20 Final at Newlands last Sunday will no doubt be eager to transfer that form to the international arena against the Windies. 

Hope was certainly impressed with the 22-year-old Rising Star, and is fully aware of the threat Brevis poses. 

“He oozes confidence. He's one of those characters that feels he can get the job done in any situation at any time,” said Hope, who was named Windies T20I captain on Monday.

“He's going to be a bit challenging playing against him now, but, yeah, it's nice to share the dressing room with him, see what he thinks like, see what he does, how he prepares, very professional, and he's certainly a proper cricketer. One of the best I've seen in a long time. 

“He's got natural talent and ability. Since we are teammates, I actually want to see him doing really well in the future, but hopefully not too well in this series.”

The Windies, though, have a couple of power-packed batters in their own line-up, including Hope who scored 276 runs at an average of 27.60 and 134.63 strike-rate for the Capitals. It included a career-best 118 not out against Durban’s Super Giants at Kingsmead.

But undoubtedly one of the sensations of the tournament was Hope’s Capitals teammate Sherfane Rutherford. The big-hitting left-hander pummelled 334 runs at an average of 66.80 and strike-rate of 165.34. 

“It's (SA20) been great prep. It's a great tournament. Standard cricket is a very high quality of cricketers that we play with and against top tier,” Hope said.

“Anytime you're playing against quality opposition, whether it's with bat or ball, you can never disregard what that can benefit for a team. 

“So I think the way Sherfane has been batting, the rest of the guys have been chipping in in different areas.

“So good prep, but still, conditions may be slightly different, just about adapting as best as we can. And we've got a few more weeks to finalize certain things that we want to. I think the guys are in good spirits and it's time to get cracking again.”

Full West Indies squad for T20Is vs SA

Shai Hope (capt), Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Quentin Sampson, Jayden Seales, Romario Shepherd