T20 Sri Lanka Series Squad: A missed opportunity for experimentation?

Skippered by Shai Hope, the T20 roster features 2026 T20 World Cup survivors like Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Akeal Hosein, Jason Holder, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, and Romario Shepherd, along with Jewel Andrew, Ackeem Auguste, and Shamar Springer. These names are all very familiar to West Indies fans.

With the next T20 World Cup in October and November 2028, the Sri Lanka series seemed to present the perfect opportunity to integrate fresh faces into the team. With the West Indies guaranteed a spot in the 2028 T20 World Cup by virtue of reaching the Super Eights in the 2026 edition, there is very little risk involved in experimenting. So why has Sammy stuck to his guns?

Hope, Chase, Holder, Hosein, King, Motie, Powell, and Shepherd are over the age of 30, while Hetmyer and Springer will have celebrated their 30th birthdays by the time the next World Cup bowls off. Through that lens, the squad is crying out for some young blood.

Then there are Hope and Chase, who present their own question. Both are involved in all three WI squads, including the One-Day Internationals, which could be seen as a case of overreliance.

As much as I questioned the Test squad olive branch Sammy offered to Hope and Chase a year ago, Hope has seemingly justified his recall. Chase, on the other hand, is another story entirely.

The West Indies have played eight Test matches with Sammy as coach and won none of them, so it seems imperative that he focus on building a productive Test team. In 2026, the team will play a trio of two-Test series, at home to Sri Lanka and Pakistan and away to Bangladesh, so there is ample opportunity to develop a fresh rapport.

Despite his poor form, Chase is still the Test skipper. Hope, meanwhile, is still the ODI captain, even though it seems possible that the ODI team may feature in the ODI World Cup qualifiers in 2027. 

Perhaps both of them should be phased out of the WI T20 team, with the captaincy offered to established middle-order batsman Sherfane Rutherford. Former skippers Jason Holder and Rovman Powell are hardly likely to be reconsidered, so we can comfortably overlook them.

Hope’s spot as wicketkeeper/top-order batsman could go to Amir Jangoo, while Chase’s role as a spin-bowling all-rounder could go to rookie leg-spinner Navin Bidaisee. 

On the subject of rookies, why on earth was Quentin Sampson picked for the World Cup?

Sampson’s run to the squad began when he earned a pick in the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the 2025 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) based on his showing in the inaugural Breakout League earlier in the year.

Used as a number nine/ten batsman, he posted scores of 25 (away to Trinbago Knight Riders) and 33 not out (away to Barbados Royals) before the Amazon Warriors went home to play their remaining matches of the season.

At the Providence Stadium, in familiar conditions, Sampson had scores of 7, 14 not out, and 19 before he was promoted to open against the St Lucia Kings. He posted knocks of 76, 50, 17 before making a duck in the final against eventual champs TKR.

His form at home was enough to see him named as the CPL Emerging Player, and after being overlooked for T20 tours of Nepal, Bangladesh, and New Zealand, it was a great shock when he was named in the 15-man squads for an away series against Afghanistan in the UAE and the subsequent World Cup.

In his international debut outing, batting at number six in the three-game series against Afghanistan, Sampson recorded returns of 30, 2, and 3. He never got a look-in at the World Cup and has now seemingly been discarded.

One of the more hair-brained moves by the then Chairman of Selectors, Desmond Haynes, was including leg-spinning all-rounder Yannic Cariah as an X-factor pick for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. It didn’t work.

With Quentin Sampson, history may have repeated itself four years later, courtesy of lone selector Darren Sammy. Has that misfire put him off taking a chance on other emerging players? The raft of familiar names in the 15-man squad suggests so. 

Has he missed a chance to experiment?