True or False: Does this WTC cycle tell the truth about Test progress?

In the Caribbean, while it has lowered the barrier for entry in the discourse, it has also emboldened the toxic aspects of the fanbase, magnifying insular cults and rewarding conspiracy theorists. In this environment, genuine discussion gets muddied and the truth becomes difficult to parse from emotion. 

Fifteen months into the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle, Daren Sammy’s side offer a clear example of this very modern phenomenon. 

Various outlets point to recent performances and centuries to underscore their argument that the team has improved under the new coach. Others, however, insist the team is deteriorating, or they imply that the true metric of success is how many games the side has won. 

But what is the truth? 

To answer that question, we need to compare the current cycle’s player base with previous generations. Specifically, it would be fitting to measure this 2025-2027 WTC against the 2023-2025 and 2021-2023 cycles. Anything before that time period would be too distant and would introduce excessive variables; different political climates and systems, for example. 

As a mini disclaimer, given that the current Test cycle is ongoing at the time of writing, some of the statistics used will be subject to change. That being said, given that there are only two games left on West Indies’ schedule for the cycle, both against Bangladesh, and that we have played a comparable number of matches as compared to previous cycles, throughlines can still be drawn.

Kraigg Brathwaite took up the captaincy of the West Indies near the start of this season and allowed the team to be built around him. The squad adopted a batting approach that would come to be known as Grindball, where the goal of every batter was to occupy as much time at the crease as possible and focus less on maintaining a ‘standard’ strike-rate. The idea was that by limiting risky shots as much as possible and instead focusing on truly bad deliveries, the batter would be able to score more runs than if they had forced a shot. 

The table above shows West Indian run scorers who appear in CricInfo’s ‘Most runs in ICC World Test Championship, 2021-2023’.

For what should be obvious reasons, we’re only looking at those who are in the top 100 run aggregators. Players like Raymond Reifer (who has played only 7 innings) simply do not do the conversation justice. 

Overall, despite having a fairly wide spread of half-centuries, the burden was still almost entirely on Brathwaite’s shoulders to score the runs. Averaging 43 and almost scoring 1000 runs in any era is phenomenal; however, when the second-highest scorer in the side trails by about 250 runs and the third-highest scorer is over 500 runs behind, the talking point needs to shift off of Kraigg and onto the fragility of the team. 

Despite the captain’s efforts and contributions from his on-again-off-again partners in the top order, Campbell and Blackwood, the remaining top and middle order batters were rarely able to capitalise on that foundation. When there was reprieve, it often came from lower-order last stands from JDS and Holder (players who usually bat 6-8), thus shifting responsibility and pressure down the line. 

Collectively, the team put together 17 half-centuries (again, not including Raymond Reifer), and 6 centuries, with Kraigg being the only player to score more than one. 

Though this approach gave some stability, a significant portion of the Caribbean fanbase dismissed it as a tedious and uninspired tactic. Critics argued that by prioritising survival, the West Indies were essentially settling for stalemates instead of aggressively pursuing victory. 

Meanwhile, the tactic’s defenders opined that, given the quality of players West Indies had at their disposal, it would be unlikely for them to win the game even if they pushed for it, so they might as well force the draw. 

In retrospect, elements of both arguments were true. With most of the team averaging in the 20s, coming away from an encounter with a win would be an anomaly. However, Grindball was not a sustainable path forward; more a band-aid to delay the much-needed team reform that would come in later years. 

Compared to the batters, the bowling lineup of the era did not undergo a change in philosophy. Nonetheless, they were able to hold their own in the team given the statistics below. 

Note: This table only looks at players who picked up 5 or more wickets in the cycle, which means a player like Gudakesh Motie, whose wickets came predominantly against Zimbabwe (not WTC members), is not considered for the conversation. 

Table 1.2: West Indies Bowlers who collected 5 or more wickets in the World Test Championship, 2021-2023

As a unit, these bowling statistics seem like something you would see from the team today: a strong pace attack but middling, toothless spin options. However, when four of your best wicket-takers average 28 and under, are strong spinners really necessary? I have an opinion on that, which I will get to in a moment.

The seamers were clearly the stars of the show, with Alzarri Joseph, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Kyle Mayers, and, to a lesser extent, Jason Holder, accounting for 155 out of the team’s 194 total wickets. The way the spoils were shared is the opposite of what we saw with the batters, where Kraigg was the lone contributor. 

The significant flaw in the combination of this bowling lineup and the batting strategy is that, as the game progressed and the pitch began to favour spin, the bowling attack became increasingly ineffective. The high averages of Chase, Warrican, and Brathwaite released the pressure that the pacers had built up earlier in the match, often allowing the opposing team to cruise to victory in the final days. There was little synergy between the two fronts of the team. 

West Indies ended the cycle ranked 8th, with two series wins. Their record stood as 4 wins (Ban, Ban, Eng, Pak), 2 draws (Eng, Eng), and 7 losses. The team posted 6 centuries and 17 half-centuries. 

In the 2023-2025 era, the limitations of Grindball had become apparent, and the administration was forced to decide how to course-correct. Unfortunately, the people in charge at the time left a lot to be desired. By the end of the cycle, the only players to be consistent in their position in the XI were captain Kraigg Brathwaite, Kavem Hodge, Joshua Da Silva, and Alick Athanaze.

If we’re claiming the 2021–2023 cycle had a top-heavy reliance on Brathwaite, then 2023–2025 represented the complete bottoming-out of the batting order. Not a single West Indian batter featured in the top 35 globally, nor did any regular batter finish the cycle with an average over 26. Athanaze topped the run tally with 627 runs, but did so at a wretched 25.08 average. His figures are made worse by the fact he failed to convert any of his four 50s into a hundred. 

Most damningly, the entire squad produced just two centuries across the two years (Kavem Hodge and Justin Greaves) and scored almost 900 fewer total runs than in the prior cycle.

The overall team drop-off between the previous cycle and this one killed any momentum or morale the team had built. The top and middle orders continued to average in the 20s; however, with Kraigg’s dip in form and Blackwood out of the team, the squad was left completely exposed. No one had a consistent partner they could rely on to hold up an end.

There isn’t much more analysis to be had because there aren’t any runs to analyse. This period formed the statistical rock bottom that any future regime would have to fix.

The glimmer of hope during this cycle was the bowling. Continuing from the previous WTC, the pace bowlers carried the brunt of the workload, this time with Jomel Warrican stepping up as the primary spin bowler for the team.

As covered in the previous cycle, a major flaw then was the toothlessness, particularly as the games aged. In this setup, the rotation of Kevin Sinclair, Gudakesh Motie, and Jomel Warrican was specifically chosen to offset the loss in effectiveness. As a bowling unit, they were relatively effective, of course being at their peak in specific conditions like Multan. 

Spinners notwithstanding, the other highlight was the debut of Shamar Joseph. By now, everyone is probably familiar with his name to some degree, even non-Windies fans. His exploits at the Gabba earned him not only a Windies Test win against Australia but also an IPL deal and millions of fans. 

Praise aside, Shamar bowls like what he is: a phenomenal talent who still needs to figure out his game. While he is undoubtedly quick, his spells often suffer from his own mental hurdles after not getting quick results, giving him an excessive economy rate. 

Regardless, with Jayden Seales looking like he had matured his game, Shamar in the squad as an enforcer, and Greaves and Kemar Roach’s steady lines, the attack that the previous cycle dreamt of finally seemed to be taking form. 

Despite the efforts of the bowlers, primarily the pacers, the degradation of the batting attack left the team with a net negative compared to the previous cycle. West Indies were still ranked 8th; however, they left the competition with 0 series wins, 3 drawn, and 3 lost. Across the two, they won just 3 games (Aus, Pak, Ban), had 2 rain-affected draws (Ind and SA), and suffered 8 losses. In the process, the team put up 2 centuries and 19 half-centuries. 

This season marks the start of the Daren Sammy edition of the squad. Much was said in the weeks leading up to the start of the cycle, with Sammy announcing new team selection strategies and showing a willingness to integrate ‘white-ball’ players into the red-ball, along with an overall rejection of the complacency that came before. 

Many found these changes to be controversial. Players who were consistently part of the setup, like Alick Athanaze and Joshua Da Silva, were dropped. Despite their replacements being known talents like Shai Hope and Brandon King, among others, many initially felt as though these guys were undeserving of their call-ups.

Overall, this willingness to try new and returning players based on deeper analytics rather than mere scorecard numbers has led to a wider variety of experimentation and player usage.

Despite having a ‘premier’ bowling line and a somewhat settled batting line, those lower down the pecking order are given opportunities to step up, which is reflected in the table below.

Looking at this year’s table, what should immediately stand out is that almost every single batter within the top eight has already outscored the top eight of the previous cycle. The only exception to this is John Campbell, who trails last cycle’s Kavem Hodge by just 6 runs. 

That being said, Campbell’s average this time is a full 5 points higher than Hodge’s. Really, the bigger point is that Campbell was able to equal Hodge’s score in seven fewer innings. 

Zooming out, similar trends appear across the board. Due to the frequent rotation within the team, the majority of batters have faced considerably fewer innings than their counterparts in the previous cycle. Despite that factor, the jump in batting average across the board negates the gap in innings. Not only did we score more runs as a team, but we did so at a faster rate. 

Moreover, if it was not enough to have higher averages and runs aggregated, the responsibility of run scoring has also been distributed throughout the team. Hope and Greaves, who both sit in the global top-ten of the cycle, have both been consistently contributing at a similar rate to Kraigg in 2021-2023. However, now with the support of the rest of the team, particularly from Hodge, King, Campbell, and sometimes Chase, the overall batting composition is possibly the healthiest it has been since the turn of the decade. 

In total, West Indian batters have registered 9 centuries in this 15-month period under Sammy, a staggering leap from the 2 centuries converted during the entire 2023–2025 campaign, and a clear improvement over the 6 centuries from 2021–2023. While the tail still fades quickly, the middle order has found a level of resilience, adaptability, and conversion that was virtually absent in the preceding years.

On the bowling front, the 2025–2027 cycle continues the decade’s concerted effort to rebuild a multi-pronged attack. For the first time in several years, there seems to be a genuine hunger within the pack that has formed. Seales and Shamar are locked in ardent competition with one another for the wicket-taker spot, and Alzarri seems to have undergone refinement under coach Daren Sammy and bowling coach Ravi Rampaul, all buttressed by the maturity and control of Kemar Roach. 

Yes, Seales’ average suffered a bit this cycle, but for now, that can just be attributed to him playing on fewer seam-friendly pitches than the other pacers enjoyed.The single biggest structural breakthrough in this cycle, however, has been Justin Greaves. Backing up his 775 runs by claiming 25 wickets at 27.80, Greaves has provided Sammy with the true, high-workrate all-rounder balance West Indies have craved since the peak years of Jason Holder.

While the main pace engine has performed at an elite standard, the drawback of the bowlers this cycle has been their drop-off in penetration from the spin bowling attack. Compared to the previous cycle, Chase and Warrican’s averages seem abysmal. Diving deeper, it is not that hard to see why. A lot of the spin highs from the last cycle came from ‘abnormal’ pitches; Multan, for example. In comparison, this cycle, focus seems to have shifted towards both batting and seaming wickets. If there is a genuine fall-off in the spin quality, it will be too difficult to parse given these factors.

With two games left for the West Indies in the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle, the team has already surpassed several key performance progress indicators when compared to prior years.

When placed alongside the two previous iterations, the statistical evidence completely dismantles the narrative that the squad has regressed under Daren Sammy, and it boils down to four distinct structural transformations:

The counterarguments used against this cycle do not seem to hold much weight. If you would like to ignore the considerable increase in every statistic and only focus on wins, we are roughly on par with previous cycles given the series we have played, with the potential to exceed them in terms of having a more favourable loss percentage. 

Only one real conclusion can be drawn: The claim that the Test team has not improved under Daren Sammy, a claim propagated by many media outlets, cricket analysts, and West Indies fans, is overly reliant on sensationalism. There is no tangible point to prove this stance. Every metric that has matured enough to be usable shows an upward trajectory. And the performance indicator that does not show a gain, win-loss, has not yet matured.

While win-loss records will always remain the ultimate metric in sport, and the upcoming 2-Test series against Bangladesh will serve as a crucial final indicator for this cycle, a team cannot consistently win Test matches without first establishing a resilient, high-performing statistical foundation. 

The 2025–2027 cycle proves that under Sammy's directive, West Indies Test cricket has systematically rebuilt its core capabilities, moving away from fragility toward genuine multi-player accountability and high-level conversion.