Having once again demonstrated how fruitful he can be at his best, stylish Jamaica Scorpions batsman Jermaine Blackwood intends to build on his rich form in future endeavours.

Blackwood, who heads the batting chart after eight rounds in the Regional Four-day Championship, is optimistic about continuing in the same vein should the tournament resume. He has even set his sights on possibly being in the West Indies’ Test side in the coming summer.

The final two rounds of the four-day championship was postponed due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Blackwood’s dazzling, maiden double-century knock of 248 against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in Antigua on Sunday, not only propelled the Scorpions to an innings and 118-run win, but also saw him entering the reckoning to reclaim a spot in the regional side.

He has so far tallied 768 runs in 15 innings in an exciting season, which includes one century and six half-centuries at an average of 51.20.

Those stats represent a positive turnaround for the right-hand batsman, who had a fairly off season last year.

“I am always a confident player, so starting the season my mindset was just to bat some balls and spend some time in the middle and not think too much about the runs and as you can see it is paying off.

“So going forward this is how I want to continue playing my part, just aiming to score runs. I am always one to put my name up there to [West Indies] selectors, and then the rest is up to them, but my job is to score runs and I think I have been doing that,” Blackwood told the Jamaica Observer.

He continued: “The team is gelling well so I am pretty disappointed that the tournament has been suspended, but such is life. Either way, I am quite happy because I started the season wanting to score three hundreds, but in return I got six half-centuries and a double-century.

“But I think going forward, if I can convert some of those half-centuries into centuries that would be good. So that is another thing I need to work on and I am currently working on it mentally, so I am pretty happy with how things have turned out so far,” he said.

While reflecting on his personal milestone, the aggressive middle-order batsman, who broke into the West Indies Test squad in June 2014 after a successful first-class season, also paid tribute to his Scorpions teammates.

The 28-year-old’s knock of 248, which is the seventh-highest score in regional first-class cricket, was backed by John Campbell’s 112.

Seamers Derval Green and Marquino Mindley, as well as slow bowlers Patrick Harty Jr and Jamie Merchant, also did their part with the ball.

“First up, I think our bowlers did really well on the first day, I think Mindley and Derval gave us a pretty good start which set the tempo for the rest of the game. The batsmen then went out and we applied ourselves and put on a big total which allowed the bowlers to go out there and do their thing again,” Blackwood reasoned.

“So I am very pleased that I was able to contribute some runs to the victory; I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t get to the 250, but such is the game. I am still happy with how I went about my business in scoring those runs, I batted for a long period of time and was well supported by John and [Nkrumah] Bonner,” he added.

The St Elizabeth native is anticipatory with some anticipation that his wonderful run of form could earn him a recall to the West Indies team, but he remains mindful about using the current time away from competitive action to improve his craft.

“I am just taking the time now to be around my family, but I will continue working, because I have seen that putting in the hard work always pay off in the long run.

“So I am going to continue working with Andre [Russell] putting in the gym work and batting some balls and stuff and see how things go in the near future,” Blackwood ended.