MLC 2025: Akeal Hosein reveals Dwayne Bravo's advice that has stuck with him

Akeal Hosein has revealed the advice he received from Dwayne Bravo, which helped him change his mindset towards continuous development and self-improvement.

The spinner also elaborated on how he mentally and tactically prepared himself to bowl against MI New York on the eve of Texas Super Kings' match against the former in the 2025 edition of Major League Cricket. The left-arm spinner bowled an extremely frugal spell of 3/15 in his four-over quota in what was otherwise an absolute run-fest of a contest.

Hosein shared how a lot depends on the frame of mind of a bowler while bowling at batting-friendly venues such as the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas. He also shed light on how he had conditioned his mind to bowl to his fellow West Indian friends, Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard. 

"I think it's the mindset. I was up for the challenge, coming up against this team. They have world-class players. It takes you to be at the peak of your game to beat these guys. To be honest, I know those (Pollard and Pooran) guys. We are friends off the field and on the field we are quite serious. Thankfully, I came out on the positive side today. I set my mind to bowl in the powerplay. I had a long night doing homework on these guys. I prepared for situations," shared Hosein while receiving the Player of the Match award at the post-match presentation.

"If you want to be best at this game, you want to be a student of the game; be it women's cricket, U-19 cricket or men's cricket. Growing up, the legend Dwayne Bravo once said as long as cricket is going on and you have the time to sit back and watch, you have something to learn. I have taken that from him. For me, it's about trying to learn and get better," added Hosein.

He bowled 14 dot deliveries in his quota, including a maiden in his third over. Out of the 24 deliveries he bowled, he conceded only one boundary (six). He was also the only player from both sides to have an economy rate lesser than 10.