Kraigg Brathwaite has not had a good time at the crease lately. In 2019, a score of 49 against the visiting English team in Antigua was his highest score for the year in what was a disastrous run as the West Indies Test opener.
It didn't get better. Scores of 14, 1, 10 and 3 against India and 11 and 8 against Afghanistan saw him end the year badly. That was when he called upon one of the best openers in West Indies history.
“I had some words with Desmond Haynes back in Barbados. Me and him always had a good relationship because he was team manager for the Barbados team when I first started, so I had some chats with him. He was obviously an opener as well and that's been very beneficial to me,” said Brathwaite who was addressing the media from the West Indies training base in Manchester on Wednesday.
Those words have proven largely to have been beneficial.
"A lot of it is keeping it simple, you don't really want to complicate it too much. It's just simple advice, just about what he did back in the day. Three hours left in a day is always a tough period for an opener, or an hour. So it's just mental stuff that he helped me with... he was very strong mentally."
The last time Brathwaite was in England, he experienced much better fortunes just missing out on twin centuries when he scored 134 and 95 at Leeds where the West Indies won by five wickets.
The 27-year-old opener said whatever happened back then is of little consequence now as the first Test set to start on July 8 draws nearer. He said he is focused on doing well for the team now.
"That was almost three years ago. Looking back at stuff I did I can obviously see things I did well, but that's history. I have a current job to do here and I'm ready, I'm raring to go,” he said.
"I'm up for the challenge... I know all the guys here can do well. I'm starting the innings and I'm just going to do my job, it's as simple as that. I know we have a good batting line-up and everyone's ready and raring to go, so no added pressure really.
"We've got to score runs. Once you can put runs on the board, we put our team in a great position. We've still got to be disciplined with the ball but I think potentially, when we won the game at Headingley, we scored runs, we chased down over 300 runs, so we've just got to put runs on the board."