The Sri Lanka Tests: Will West Indies finally win at home?

The last time they triumphed in a Test match on home soil was against Bangladesh in November 2024, at the very same venue. Since then, West Indies have lost four in a row at home: first against Bangladesh in Jamaica in December 2024, followed by a three-Test whitewash against Australia.

In fact, since coach Daren Sammy and captain Roston Chase began their reign in May 2025, West Indies have lost seven out of eight Tests. The forthcoming fixtures against Sri Lanka offer a golden chance to return to winning ways, but what will it take to buck the recent trend?

Where West Indies are concerned, there are four important elements that pundits and armchair critics will be keeping an eye on when the series bowls off.

Campbell and King? Campbell and Chanderpaul? King and Chanderpaul? Where would you put your money?

When Chanderpaul was ruled out with a muscle injury for the Tests in New Zealand last December, King was recalled to partner Campbell at the top of the batting order. The Campbell-King tandem put on stands of 66 and 24 in the second Test at Wellington, followed by 111 and 87 in the third Test at Mount Maunganui.

Campbell and Chanderpaul were the opening pair in the two-Test series in India, as well as the first Test in New Zealand. However, King did not feature for the WI Select XI against Sri Lanka last weekend, and it is unclear whether he was injured or rested.

If he was rested, then I sense King, who had never opened at the first-class level before the New Zealand tour, will continue his newfound partnership with Campbell.

Since Sammy took over as Test coach a year ago, four batsmen have been picked for the number three spot: Keacy Carty, Kevlon Anderson, Alick Athanaze, and Kavem Hodge.

In the last Test in New Zealand, Hodge scored an unbeaten 123 in the first innings, followed by a duck. That zero hovers over him, but it would seem unfair were he not to be given a chance to make this spot his own.

However, Hodge must realise that his Test record is mediocre at best: 714 runs at an average of 28.56 after 13 matches doesn’t exactly catch the eye. With young batsmen like Kirk McKenzie, Kevin Wickham, and Ackeem Auguste all waiting in the wings, not to mention Amir Jangoo, Hodge will have to let his bat do the talking in the forthcoming series.

In May 2025, after Kraigg Brathwaite’s resignation as Test captain, Cricket West Indies announced that they had implemented a ‘system’ to select his replacement. During this process, they interviewed Chase, Campbell, Da Silva, Tevin Imlach, Justin Greaves, and Jomel Warrican for the role, assessing them against certain criteria.

All of those players featured in the Test squad against Australia, India, and New Zealand, except for Joshua Da Silva.

Da Silva returned to the domestic circuit and tallied a season’s best 413 runs in the 2026 Four-Day Championships, and with incumbent wicketkeeper Imlach struggling to prove his worth in front of the stumps since the India tour, the former WI vice-captain has rightly made his way back into the fold.

Chase and Warrican have yet to convince, both as leaders and as players, so one wonders if Da Silva will be seen as a long-term prospect, both with the gloves and in the leadership role.

Gudakesh Motie took an impressive 29 wickets for the Guyana Harpy Eagles in five matches. However, as far as the specialist slow-bowling role is concerned, fellow left-arm spinner Warrican has remained numero uno.

Motie was left out of the final XI in the three T20s against Sri Lanka, which begs a question: Has he been cast aside by the team’s selection think-tank? 

Time will tell.