West Indies’ T20 future: Can they build again?

DEEP DIVE

by Deepu Narayanan •

West Indies haven't made the semis of the last four T20 World Cups. Turning flashes of brilliance into sustained excellence is the challenge that beckons. © Getty

West Indies haven't made the semis of the last four T20 World Cups. Turning flashes of brilliance into sustained excellence is the challenge that beckons. © Getty

Daren Sammy was ecstatic after leading West Indies to their second T20 World Cup title in 2016. The team had put adversity aside, united around a shared purpose and delivered. It seemed to confirm that the Caribbean’s supply of T20 talent was enduring, just as the inaugural title in 2012 had suggested.

Ten years later, Sammy is head coach, West Indies are seventh in the T20I rankings and have missed the semi-finals at the four T20 World Cups since their 2016 triumph. Their wider struggles are familiar: they finished second from bottom in the first three World Test Championship cycles and sit eighth in the current one, with one series to play. In ODIs, they missed the last two Champions Trophy editions and failed to qualify for the 2023 World Cup. Since the start of 2025, their 42% win rate in T20Is is better than only Sri Lanka’s and Zimbabwe’s among Full Member sides. Financial strain, a thinning talent pipeline and the demands of an evolving T20 game have complicated their transition, but the India series suggests the ability remains. The challenge is to turn those flashes into sustained success.

Daren Ganga, the former West Indies batter and Trinidad and Tobago captain, brings both playing and leadership experience to the debate over West Indies’ T20 future. He led Trinidad and Tobago to the 2008 Stanford T20 title and the inaugural Champions League final, during a period that helped bring players such as Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Lendl Simmons into the T20 spotlight. He sees the current moment as the end of a cycle – and a test of how well West Indies can develop the next generation.

“If you look at the journey of the West Indies T20I side, there was a period of growth which led to maturity with that first ICC T20 World Cup win in 2012. The core of that team went on to win in 2016. That cycle of players has now come to an end,” Ganga says. He names Sammy, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Pollard and Narine as leaders of that success. Some have left the game while others are no longer central to the international side. The challenge is to give the next generation the pathway and preparation to take over.

Ten years on from their 2016 triumph, West Indies are chasing the same excellence again. © AFP

The cost of cricket

Yet the obstacles extend beyond the field. Cricket West Indies (CWI) has announced a 25% reduction in retainer fees amid financial pressure. Domestic contracts are set to be trimmed to seven months, and some tournaments have been shelved, leaving players to weigh the value of staying on the CWI payroll even as the team tours India.

Nicholas Pooran, the defining batter of this generation, stepped away from international cricket last year to pursue opportunities as a T20 free agent. The global franchise circuit can offer bigger paydays and a more predictable workload than international cricket in the Caribbean. Ganga points out that this affects West Indies’ ability to put its best team on the park, which in turn leads to a more cautious approach - as we will see in the statistics.

“One of the biggest challenges that Cricket West Indies faces is player availability, and when you have a situation like that you have to put yourself in the role of a coach,” he says. “That coach has a moving pool of players that he has to make do with, and at times you may not have five of your best bowlers who can give you a higher probability of winning a T20 match. You don't have a wide pool of resources where you have backup players who can seamlessly step into roles. When you have that sort of scenario you have to play according to the resources that you have, so you can't be so risk tolerant.”

Ganga adds that the cost of running cricket across the region has risen sharply over the last five or six years. Unlike India or England, where teams can travel between states or counties by road, West Indies cricket spans separate countries and islands. Travel and accommodation are expensive, particularly in tourism-driven economies where hotel rates can be high.

“That is a massive cost to bear, whether you are administering domestic tournaments or investing in training and development and moving players across the region,” he says. Meanwhile, CWI’s revenue and appeal to sponsors have diminished. The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) attracts much of the region’s corporate interest, but the market is small. Ganga sees an increasingly unsustainable funding model for a pathway that must produce world-class players.

CPL: The umbilical cord for T20

The CPL remains central to any rebuild. Now in its 14th season, it is the world’s third-longest-running major T20 league, behind the IPL and BBL. Ganga, a broadcaster for the competition, calls it the “umbilical cord” of T20 cricket in the region.

Young players work hard to earn CPL places because the league gives them a platform to showcase their skills and potentially secure opportunities elsewhere. Franchises are rooted in their jurisdictions, engaging audiences and working with territorial boards on initiatives that can include player development. Ganga is emphatic about its value: “If you ask me on whether or not CPL has brought more positives than negatives, yes is my answer, and long may the CPL live.”

That local connection has been reinforced by changes in ownership and identity. Ahead of the 2026 season, Barbados Royals were rechristened Barbados Tridents and returned to blue and yellow, the country’s national colours, as the Barbados government became a minority co-investor with Royals Sports Group – which also manages Rajasthan Royals in the IPL – in the franchise. Jamaica returned after a two-year absence as Jamaica Kingsmen, through a public-private partnership involving the Government of Jamaica and Kingsmen Sports Enterprise, which also owns Hyderabad Kingsmen in the PSL.

Ganga calls the CPL the "umbilical cord" of Caribbean cricket. © Getty

Yet a gap remains below the CPL. India has the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy feeding into the IPL; England has the T20 Blast as a route towards the Hundred. The Caribbean has domestic T20 competitions in its six major first-class jurisdictions, but no equivalent regional feeder league that consistently exposes emerging players to the next level. That helps explain why the region has produced fewer sudden breakthroughs compared to India’s Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, England’s Jacob Bethell, South Africa’s Lhuan-dre Pretorius or Pakistan’s Maaz Sadaqat.

CWI and the CPL launched the West Indies Breakout League in 2025 to connect domestic cricket, the CPL and the senior international side, with each team intended to link to a territorial board and CPL franchise. Financial difficulties meant the competition did not materialize in 2026.

The CPL’s expansion may complicate matters. Growing from six teams to seven in 2026 has spread talent more thinly, while the newly launched ETPL has competed for overseas talent. Heinrich Klaasen, Steven Smith, Finn Allen and Trent Boult chose the ETPL over the CPL; CPL regulars Faf du Plessis, David Wiese, Andries Gous and Ali Khan also moved across. Their absence means fewer opportunities for young Caribbean players to train and compete alongside established overseas talent.

Preparing for the modern T20

The development challenge is not just access to matches. T20 has evolved rapidly over the last three or four years: pitches have become flatter, aggression is expected throughout the XI, and bowlers need a wider range of defensive skills. CPL conditions often offer a different examination.

Since 2023, the median first-innings total in the CPL has been 167, compared with 192 in the IPL, 183 in the PSL, 179 in the Lanka Premier League and 176 in Major League Cricket. At the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, the median was 178 overall and 184 when only Full Member teams were considered. The CPL’s average first-innings total has also declined year on year, from 178 in 2023 to 159 in 2026.

The CPL is well behind the IPL as far as median first innings totals is concerned. © Cricbuzz

Median first innings totals in the CPL over the last few seasons paint a telling picture. © Cricbuzz

Nearly 42% of first-innings totals in the IPL have reached 200 since 2023. The equivalent proportions in the PSL, SA20 and MLC are in the mid-to-high twenties; in the CPL, it is only 18.5%. Batters must learn to score when surfaces do not consistently reward attacking strokes, while bowlers can rely more on pitch assistance than they may find abroad. Variety in conditions is valuable - and Ganga is a fan of pitches that offer a contest between bat and ball - but players also need exposure to the higher-scoring environments increasingly seen in international T20.

“In the Caribbean, these pitches and venues don’t really offer that type of consistency or bias towards batters. Bowlers are always in the game, with an opportunity to take wickets,” Ganga says.

He also points to a shortage of certified curators and is involved in an international turf-maintenance program bringing Melbourne Polytechnic together with the University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Sport to improve curators’ theoretical and practical knowledge.

“The impact will be felt over time. We are hoping for consistency in the quality of venues, allowing positive play with both bat and ball,” he says. The goal is not identical surfaces, but minimum standards that help players develop.

Only 18.5% of first innings totals in the CPL since 2023 have reached 200 or more. © Cricbuzz

Starting behind

The preparation gap is visible at the top of the batting order, with winning the Powerplay becoming more central to a team’s success. Between January 2025 until the start of India T20Is, West Indies’ openers have averaged 27.19 at a strike rate of 131.32, right at the lower rung. West Indies scored at eight runs per over from opening partnerships, the lowest among Full Member sides. In comparison, top sides like India, Australia, and England have frontloaded their most aggressive batters to exploit the fielding restrictions.

After the third T20I in Indore, skipper Shai Hope explained the cost of those early wickets: “Once you lose wickets in the Powerplay, it's always going to put you back a bit. Sometimes you’ve still got to find that partnership at the top. If you get that foundation laid, it's always going to be a lot easier for the guys coming in the middle period.”

The issue was exposed in the must-win T20 World Cup game against India at Eden Gardens. West Indies made a below par 195/4 batting first. Hope scored 32 off 33 balls at the top, and Romario Shepherd ended up not facing a delivery.

CPL numbers point to a shortage of locally developed top-order batters. Since 2023, West Indies openers in the competition have averaged 23.53 at a strike rate of 130.44, with only one century. Overseas openers average 32.24 at 142.78 and have scored six hundreds. Of the ten occasions an opener has made at least 300 runs in a CPL season, only three were by local players: Andre Fletcher twice and Johnson Charles once. Fletcher is 38 and Charles 37. Next on the local list is Kamil Pooran, who scored 273 runs in 2026 to crack the West Indies XI in India. He is 30, underlining the lack of younger options.

Opening batters from West Indies have ground to cover across key metrics. © Cricbuzz

Ganga attributes part of the problem to the resource gap with leading teams. India, he says, have set the standard in training, development, fitness and sustaining high intensity. Not every nation can match that investment, so West Indies must build a style suited to the players and resources available.

Players are still learning the consistency modern T20 demands. Kamil Pooran, for instance, is a stroke-maker developing his game, not simply a six-hitter. His role should be to score consistently at a healthy rate, dominate the Powerplay and bat deep, according to Ganga.

“He is not physically as strong or as tall as Gayle, Pollard or Russell. There is individuality, and there are limitations within that individuality. So, it has to be a scouted effort,” Ganga says. The task is to identify strengths and build roles around them, rather than expecting every batter to replicate the great Caribbean power-hitters.

There were signs of progress at the top of the order in the fourth T20I against India in Hyderabad on Wednesday, where Jewel Andrew came in and an opening stand of 52 in 4.2 overs with Hope laid the platform for a huge total, which West Indies defended to square the series.

Sixes are no longer enough

West Indies helped define T20 through six-hitting, and this was central to their World Cup successes in 2012 and 2016. That ability remains: since April 2023, the CPL has been among the leading competitions for six-hitting, just behind the IPL. Sixes account for 41.1% of all boundaries in the CPL, compared with roughly 29 to 34% in other major leagues.

The CPL remains among the leading competitions for six-hitting. © Cricbuzz

Sixes account for 41.1% of all boundaries in the CPL. © Cricbuzz

But power alone no longer separates West Indies from the rest. On dot-ball percentage and strike rate from non-boundary deliveries, the CPL performs worse than most other leagues, with the BPL the notable exception. Other teams have paired boundary-hitting with strike rotation and more ways to score when they cannot clear the rope. West Indies retain the power; the next step is to make the rest of the package just as reliable.

In the ongoing India series, West Indies have hit 57 sixes to India’s 41, outscoring them in sixes count in each of the four T20Is. Yet India have scored faster overall: 11.68 runs an over to West Indies’ 11.31. The contrast captures both the Caribbean side’s enduring strength and the areas in which they can improve.

The bowling problem

The bowling numbers are more troubling. Since the start of 2025 until the start of the India series, West Indies are at the bottom among Full Member teams for both bowling average and economy rate. They have the worst average in the Powerplay and middle overs and are the only side conceding more than nine runs an over between overs seven and 15.

Bowling remains a major concern for West Indies to address. © Cricbuzz

The middle-overs weakness is linked partly to CPL conditions. Surfaces that assist finger-spin have helped that type of bowler emerge, but those skills can be less effective on flatter tracks abroad. The shortage of wrist-spinners is especially stark. Vitel Lawes was called up from the Under-19 side before playing a professional game elsewhere. The 19-year-old struggled after his debut series in the CPL and the ODIs in India, illustrating how steep the step up can be without a sustained professional pathway.

Apart from Lawes, only three local wrist-spinners have appeared in the CPL over the last four years: Naveen Bidaisee, Zishan Motara and Hayden Walsh. Bidaisee and Motara featured in the T20I series against Nepal last year while Walsh has completely fallen out of favour.

Ganga agrees that the region’s supply of spin is limited. “I think it’s on the low side, maybe below average,” he says. “Spinners can become fearful of being attacked and respond by bowling flat, fast or defensively. The issue is not solely the responsibility of individual players: access to world-class specialist coaches is limited in the region, particularly for spin. India’s players have greater exposure to specialist coaching through the IPL and its training camps, while West Indies need comparable support to develop bowlers who can attack on unhelpful surfaces and remain effective when batters take the initiative.”

West Indies have, however, been more effective with the ball in the middle overs during the current series, pulling games back after falling behind in the Powerplay. Their fast bowlers have resorted to their death-overs skills earlier than usual, while the finger-spinners have applied pressure through canny, defensive bowling.

The fact that West Indies have pushed India to a series decider suggests they can match India, but they have also been heavily reliant on the brilliance of Shai Hope, who has scored a century in every match of the tour when the tourists have gone on to win. They clearly need more consistency from a broader group of players to sustain that challenge in the decider should Hope have a day off.

West Indies have pushed India incredibly well in the ongoing T20I series. © BCCI

West Indies’ previous generation of Gayle, Pollard, Bravo, Narine and Russell established them as global T20 pioneers. Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Jason Holder and Akeal Hosein have carried parts of that legacy forward, but the next transition is already in view. Ganga identifies Ackeem Auguste, Jewel Andrew, Jakeem Pollard and Lawes as prospects to watch. Their development will depend on a domestic environment that tests them, coaching that expands their skill sets and a regional pathway that gives them enough high-quality cricket to bridge the gap to International T20.

At Eden Gardens ten years ago, West Indies completed a remarkable triple: the men’s and women’s teams won the T20 World Cups, following the Under-19 side’s triumph earlier that year. A decade on, Sammy is at the helm of affairs, while three members of that Under-19 squad – Hetmyer, Keemo Paul and Shamar Springer – have made notable contributions in this series.

Ganga believes West Indies have the raw talent to win a third T20 World Cup. Their performances in India have offered glimpses of that potential, and a win over India in Bengaluru would seal a special series victory. The parallels with 2016 are striking: once again, in a period of adversity and uncertainty, West Indies have rallied together. The challenge now is to turn that spirit into something lasting – to rally round the West Indies, as their anthem urges, and make this the beginning of another winning cycle.

© Cricbuzz