He whacks four balls for four sixes in the final over of a T20 World Cup final and then speaks about the romance in Test cricket, his love for whites and the privilege to work alongside his idol - Rahul Dravid. Carlos Brathwaite is in a world of his own at the moment wherein there is a new found stardom, a sudden fan following and a place where all eyes are on him.

It’s been close to a week since his T20 World Cup glory, but Brathwaite insists he is reminded of THOSE four sixes time and again. “It has been a bit of a challenge in terms of constant interviews and reliving the four sixes each and every day,” he said. “I had time management problems to begin with making sure that I did all the interviews and commitments. Now I am aware of the challenges that this new stardom has brought me and it something that I look forward to and need to cope with if I continue to be successful.

“I cannot count the number of interviews I have done over the last few days, but for the stage that it happened on, everyone wanted to know what was going through my mind and what I was thinking at that point of time and how I did it. I am just trying to facilitate as much people as possible. Hope I didn’t miss anyone. I just tried to do as much as I could within the time frame,” he quipped further.

Though the T20 World Cup was done and dusted, Brathwaite was of the view that it was a mighty learning experience for him. “I shared the dressing room with Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo - the guys that have been on the T20 circuit for a few years and have been successful. Just being able to watch those guys train and prepare themselves and the way they pick themselves up from bad performance and enjoy the good performances was a lesson for me. It was a pleasure to be in their presence as well and I just hope that I can take what I learn and match it with what I know already. More importantly, you need to use that to good effect to be successful for the Delhi Daredevils and then to influence the youngsters inside the Delhi dressing room.”

It is a franchise that has welcomed the West Indian batsman with open arms. Brathwaite adds the much needed firepower in the Delhi Daredevils batting line-up and was hoping to put up a good show in the IPL. “In the last couple of days we have been training hard to be in the mental space and capacity to give hundred per cent on the field. Power-hitting is something that the Delhi Daredevils require of me and I would want to do it for them. I would want to come on top and if that requires me hitting one six or doing it by singles, I am prepared to do that for the franchise.”

Moreover, Brathwaite was also excited to work with the likes of Rahul Dravid and hoped he could take a lot back home at the end of the IPL season. “The IPL title is one of the many important things and hopefully I can take that. I am privileged enough to come into the team as a World Cup winner and be able to take some lessons. I hope I impact a youngster in the dressing room. I also find myself privileged enough to be working along with someone I have idolized throughout my career and that is Rahul Dravid.

“We had a couple of chats and it is good to hear from him as a person and as a player on what are the areas that I would look to improve on in terms of playing spin and I spoke to Rahul about that. I hope that at the end of six weeks, I go back to the West Indies with better understanding of how to play spin bowling and how to rotate it and how to score off it,” he elaborated.

When asked if he found it motivating to lift the Delhi Daredevils from the bottom of the table to the top, Brathwaite said. “I honestly believe you always have something to prove. If you are the defending champions, then next year you have to prove that it wasn’t a fluke. If you weren’t doing well before then you have to prove that you are good enough to be here.

I don’t want to say that we will take the past and use it as strength but together as a team, we are aware that we didn’t have a good recent past. We need to find our strategies as a team to do better in the present and the near future rather than using the previous editions as a sole motivation. It will be used as a motivation, but there are other parts and other motivating factors. As a team we need to concentrate on those motivating factors for this team’s success.”