After the Gabba Test win, Kraigg Brathwaite said that his team drew inspiration from Hogg’s criticism.
After registering the series-levelling victory, Caribbean skipper Kraigg Brathwaite said that his team drew inspiration from Hogg’s criticism to stun the hosts in Brisbane.
Following Australia’s 10-wicket win in the opening Test in Adelaide, Hogg had called the West Indies side 'hopeless' and 'pathetic'.
Speaking at the post-match presentation at the Gabba, Brathwaite flexed his muscles and asked, "Are these muscles big enough for him?".
Days after West Indies’ historic victory, Rodney Hogg broke his silence and commended the visitors for their fight back, in what initially seemed to him would be a 'two-and-a-half-day game'.
“When I looked at the West Indies in that first innings in this second Test, I was having a look here and I'm thinking to myself, ‘How good was my prediction?'. They were 5/65 and Starc had three wickets … it was looking like a dead set two-and-a-half-day game."
“What an amazing performance, it was fantastic to see them given an opportunity to play a second Test match against Australia. The fact that they were up at the Gabba, some of them had never played in a day-night game before. There's a pink ball. They're in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people. It's a different experience,” said Hogg to Sen.com.au.
Young pacer Shamar Joseph delivered a sensational spell to script West Indies’ first Test win on Australian soil since 1997.
Joseph defied a sleepless night after his toe was crushed by a Mitchell Starc yorker to return with the figures of 7/68 in Australia’s second innings. It was his debut Test series and he bagged a total of 13 wickets across the two matches to earn the Player-of-the-Series award.
Rodney Hogg joked he has apparently "reinvented West Indies Test cricket" before adding that West Indies were hopeless when he made that comment but improved significantly with time.
“Well, apparently, I've reinvented West Indies Test cricket. They were hopeless before I made those comments and they've, they've all jumped up and been motivated to play well," Hogg stated.
“They came here with six guys that didn't have a Test cap and they were so inexperienced, and you sort of thought, ‘Well, they are a bunch of hopeless players', but give them some game time a few of them showed, some real ability, didn't they? The better that the longer the two games went on, the better they got,” he further remarked.