Has Sammy’s white ball crossover experiment worked?

When he became West Indies all-format coach, Daren Sammy made it clear that the days of pigeonholing players into formats were over. 

This statement sent fans and media into a frenzy as they tried to work out who Sammy might convince to don West Indies whites, and on 10th June 2025, when the Australia test squad was announced, we got our answers. 

Headlines were made by the inclusion of Shai Hope, who was returning to Test cricket for the first time since November 2021. Equally eyebrow-raising was the return of Roston Chase, who was handed his first Test nod since March 2023 and awarded the captaincy, no less. Another interesting inclusion was Brandon King, who would be making his Test match debut at the age of 30.

A little over six months later, I argue that, overall, Daren Sammy’s decision to ignore domestic contributors in favour of so-called ‘white ball’ players has been vindicated.

Hope is this generation’s outstanding talent (ODI average 51, T20 average 29 sr 138), but his inability to translate that talent to red ball cricket was a conundrum that no one had ever been able to solve.

A career that exploded into bright lights with his back-to-back centuries at Headingly in 2017 never kicked on in Test cricket, and repeated failures led to his disappearance from the arena in 2021. 

Some spoke of Shai’s inability to cope with the moving red ball, twinned with greater scrutiny of his technique over extended periods. Some said he was batting in the wrong position, having spent the majority of it either opening or at number three or four. 

Whatever the technical reasons for Shai’s failure in whites, when he was recalled to the Test squad, he had only played four first-class matches in four years. What had he done to earn renewed Test recognition?

In any other circumstance, given his history in the format, he wouldn’t have been due a recall. But Darren Sammy saw things differently. His gamble was that Shai Hope was refreshed mentally and ready for a Test renaissance. 

In retrospect, it was a fairly safe bet. You simply cannot score 19 ODI hundreds without having the innate ability to cope at the highest level, and under the greatest pressure. The key would be finding the right role for him in the Test squad. 

Has Sammy’s gamble paid off? Yes, most certainly.

When Sammy sets out his plan for the challenges that await in 2026, he can look back at Shai Hope’s 2025 Test record with great satisfaction.

535 runs in 16 innings

Avg 33.44

2 hundreds 

1 fifty

No one bettered him across the calendar year. In fact, Shai was the only player to average over 30 in Test cricket, which is the modern-day holy grail for a West Indian cricketer.

If you were to pick holes in my argument, you might point out that Sammy initially brought Shai back to keep wicket, and that the experiment wasn’t a success in the low-scoring Australia series. However, he came into his own when he dropped the gloves and moved to #4 from the India Test onwards, averaging 49 in the eight innings without the gloves. 

What does it say about our domestic competition that someone who only played two first-class matches in four years was able to come back to the highest level and dominate? Does Daren Sammy know something you don’t?

We must be balanced. If recalling Shai Hope was a success, recalling Roston Chase and making him captain has, by contrast, been an unmitigated disaster. The reason: Captain Chase is not warranting selection in either suit.

In 16 innings, he has averaged 14 with the bat and 71 with the ball. In no circumstance can that be justified or explained away, particularly for someone in a leadership role. 

As it stands, Chase seems to be in the Test team as a specialist captain, which is unsustainable if West Indies are to move forward as a Test side. 

Poor performance aside, there is an argument to be made that he has been an adequate captain, particularly as no one else seems fit to captain the West Indies men’s senior side. That, however, cannot be a good enough reason to maintain his position.

With Sri Lanka and Pakistan at home and Bangladesh away in 2026, it will be interesting to see how long Sammy will give Chase to turn his form around. That’s assuming he gives him any time at all.

The people calling on Sammy to ditch Chase fail to acknowledge that there are almost no viable candidates to replace the captain. Will Sammy hold his nerve and stand by the decision to bring Chase back, or will he accept that the gamble hasn’t paid off and fold?

And lastly, what of Brandon King? Is he a number three or a Test match opener? 

However you answer that question, he ended 2025 with a very solid Test match average of 28 from 12 innings, with three 50s. Only three other players finished the year with a better average (Hope, Greaves, and Hodge), so I believe we should mark Brandon King’s selection in the success column.

As I mentioned earlier, it is very rare in the modern era to see West Indian Test batters average over 30, so we might see 28 as the next best thing. 

By the end of 2025, King had become an opener and was fostering a promising opening partnership with John Campbell. Many have spoken of the positive intent he has brought to the top of the innings, in stark contrast to the stodgy play associated with Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Kraigg Braithwaite. 

That said, I would exercise a little caution, as King’s positive intent may not work on all tracks, especially when John Campbell is at the other end. But for now, he has earned the right to carry on at the top, and that’s all you can do when you get an opportunity.

King is a classic stroke player, albeit with a question mark about his defence to the ball coming back in to him. But again, his call-up to Test whites can be said to be a success. 

Much like Shai Hope, when you consider King had only played ten West Indies Championship games in the five years before his call-up, it rather makes a mockery of the selection standards that some demand we stick to.

Did King put in the hard yards in the domestic first-class games to warrant a call-up? Possibly not. Did he have enough international white-ball experience to suggest he was worth a gamble? Yes.

Has that gamble paid off? For now, the answer is yes. 

These three selection calls garnered a lot of critique and attention in June 2025, but at this point in time, Daren Sammy has a 66% success rate.

Conversations about his coaching credentials carry on at various volumes, but has anyone given him credit for the selection calls that have worked? Or better yet, has anyone asked why Hope and King were not playing Test cricket in the years before June 2025?

The question we should be asking now is who is next? Sherfane Rutheford? Romario Shepherd? Akeal Hosein?

Can Sammy convince other so-called ‘white ball’ players to make the leap? 

Perhaps, in view of his 66% success rate, he has earned the right to look his critics in the eye and say, “Trust the process.”