West Indies Men’s Cricket Chief Selector and Head Coach Daren Sammy seems likely to be facing some major headaches in the weeks ahead. Particularly in terms of the West Indies Test teams for their forthcoming home series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.From the West Indies Test team’s captaincy, through the all-important positions of its opening and middle-order batters, even including the wicket-keeper and chosen first choice frontline spinner, the decisions to be made won’t be at all easy for King Sammy!
From June 3 to July 7, 2026, the West Indies will host Sri Lanka for three ODI’s, an identical number of T20Is and two Tests. Jamaica’s famed Sabina Park will be the venue for each and every one of the scheduled ODIs and T20Is. To be followed by the two Tests, which will both be played in Antigua at that island’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
Immediately following the Sri Lanka Series, the West Indies will also host New Zealand for five ODIs to be played at Guyana’s National Stadium from July 11-21. They will then conclude their 2026 Home Series fixtures with two Tests against Pakistan to be played at Trinidad & Tobago’s Brian Lara Cricket Academy. The first from July 25-29, to be followed by the second from August 2 – 6, 2026.
The scheduled home Tests against Sri Lanka, and subsequently Pakistan, will assume the added significance of being among the West Indies final assignments for the current 2025 – 2027 biennial International Cricket Council’s (ICC) World Test Championship cycle. And as such will provide ample opportunities for the home side to improve upon its current highly embarrassing record of zero wins, seven losses, and one draw in its eight matches played to date. Grossly embarrassing indeed for a cricketing nation which just over three decades ago played unbeaten for 14 years (1980-1994) encompassing 29 Test series!
The stakes, therefore, could not be any higher for Sammy as he goes about his decision-making to determine the chosen squads for the two forthcoming home series. First against the current fourth-placed Sri Lankans and subsequently the seventh-ranked Pakistanis.
First and foremost, on Sammy’s decision-making plate will be the all-important crucial choice as to who should be assigned the leadership role as captain of the West Indies Test team. In regard to which the current incumbent, Barbados’ Royston Chase, has failed miserably in fulfilling the most fundamental requirement of meriting, beyond any doubt whatsoever, his place in the team.
Since his May 2025 appointment as the West Indies Test captain for the following month’s June Home Series against the visiting Australians, Rostan Chase has led the West Indies in 7 Tests. His highly unenviable record for which has been 0 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw!
More importantly, Chase’s record as the team’s number 5/6 middle-order batter has been even more dismal. In 16 innings as captain, he’s recorded 9 single-digit scores, with a highest of 44 and a batting average of only 14! His overall Test batting average has also since dipped below 25.
As an off-spin bowler, Chase’s record since he assumed the captaincy has been even more dismal. Just 3 wickets captured at an average of over 71 per. On average, he’s taken a wicket every 17 overs bowled.
Hardly the sort of statistics that would justify Chase’s inclusion in the West Indies Test team even as a batting/bowling all-rounder. Let alone as captain.
Chase’s batting performances for the Barbados Pride franchise in the current ongoing 2026 West Indies 4-Day Championship have also been somewhat uninspiring. 132 runs scored from 4 innings batted at an average of 33 and with 84 as his highest score. He has, however, had commendable returns with the ball.13 wickets captured from 117 overs bowled. At an average of 25.61 and with a 2.83 economy rate.
If not Chase to continue as captain, then who? That’s where Sammy’s major headaches will begin. As there aren’t exactly any immediately identifiable captaincy candidates who have been raising their hands and banging down the doors with performances that first and foremost justify their indisputable inclusion as players.
Based solely on his performances during the current CWI 2026 Championship, Trinidad & Tobago’s Joshua DaSilva would now appear to be the strongest contender as Chase’s West Indies Test captaincy replacement. Not only has DaSilva led the T&T Red Force franchise to a place in the forthcoming June 17-20, 2026 Championship Final against the defending champions Guyana’s Harpy Eagles, but his performances as a wicket-keeper batter have also been impressively outstanding!
As of the time of writing, DaSilva currently sits atop the Championship’s rankings for Most Runs Scored. 402 runs from 5 innings batted at an average of 80.40 and with a whopping 220 as his highest score.
The issue with DaSilva, however, is that he’s not played in any Tests for the West Indies since December 2024. Having been replaced as the West Indies’ first-choice wicket-keeper batter by Guyana’s Tevin Imlach. The latter’s poor form with the bat in Tests, just 169 runs scored from 12 innings in 6 matches at an average of 15.36 and only 35 as his highest score, coupled with equally uninspiring 2026 Championship batting to date, has, however, opened the door for DaSilva to regain his Test pace as the West Indies wicketkeeper-batter for the forthcoming Sri Lanka series.
In his 5 innings batted from 3 matches played to date, Imlach has scored just 151 runs at an average of 30.20. 82 of those 151 runs scored, however, came from his highest score innings of 82 against the Championship’s eventual cellar-dwelling franchise, the Windward Islands Hurricanes!
For DaSilva to regain his position as the West Indies wicket-keeper batter and simultaneously be handed the Test team’s captaincy might, therefore, be too great a quantum leap of faith for Sammy to make. A return to Jason Holder, the former captain, who has been having an outstanding 2026 season in the Indian Premier League, is one alternative option that has been gaining traction among West Indies cricket fans and followers. Holder captained the West Indies in 37 Tests between 2015 and 2020. During which he won 11 Tests, lost 17 and drew 9!
Who Sammy decides to give the captaincy reins to will, therefore, be very interesting to see.
So too will his choices for the West Indies opening and middle order batters, as well as the team’s frontline batters. Will Sammy persist with the incumbent opening pair of Jamaica’s John Campbell and Guyana’s Tagenarine Chanderpaul? Or will he, with an eye to the future, be influenced by the 2026 Championship performances of Jamaica’s Kirk McKenzie, 323 runs from 6 innings batted at a 64.60 average and with a 135 not out highest score and/or Trinidad & Tobago’s Cephas Cooper, 229 runs from 5 innings; average 45.80; highest score 102!
Sammy will also have similar decision-making headaches in relation to the West Indies top and middle order batting from positions three to six. The only arguably undisputable current tenants of which might be Jamaica’s Brandon King as the number three and Barbados’ Shai Hope at five.
In terms of the bowlers, Sammy’s decision-making should rightfully be guided by his thinking as to which combination of bowlers is most likely to capture the twenty opposition wickets required to result in the West Indies winning any of the scheduled Tests. The emerging pace bowling trio of the two Josephs: Alzarri and Shamar, along with Jayden Seales, should now, however, easily be as straightforward certainties as night follows day.
Should a fourth seamer in either the veteran Kemar Roach or the 2026 Championship impressive, 21 wickets at a paltry 17.95 average, Anderson Phillip be chosen to accompany those aforementioned three? Or should the fourth bowler instead be a front-line spinner?
If Sammy’s choice is for a spinner as the fourth front-line bowler, then his choices are now likely to be as equally difficult as any of the previously mentioned others. Should he prevail with the incumbent Barbadian Jomel Warrican? Or has Guyana’s Gudakesh Motie’s most recent, wholly impressive, 2026 Championship performances, primarily with the ball, but also equally importantly as an aggressive lower-order batter, been sufficient to justify his recall to the West Indies Test team?
In the ongoing 2026 Championship, from 3 matches played, and with the Final still forthcoming, Motie has to date captured 24 wickets at a paltry average of 12.83 and equally impressive economy rate of 3.21. By comparison, Warrican’s, now concluded, returns have been 13 wickets in 4 matches played, taken at an average of 29.53 and with a 2.79 economy rate.
Additionally, as a lower-order batter, Motie has scored 120 runs from 5 innings at an average of 30.00 and with an aggressive strike rate of 74.07. Warrican, by comparison, has only managed 23 runs from 4 innings batted at a 5.75 average and 25.84 strike rate.
Interesting choices now, therefore, ahead for King Sammy to soon be making. In preparation for which his medicine cabinet might already be full of headache pain-reducing medications!
About The Writer:
Guyana-born, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of the WI Wickets monthly online cricket magazine targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. As a seasoned journalist with thirty-plus years experience, his writings on Canadian and Caribbean cricket, have been featured in newspapers and magazines in Canada, throughout the Caribbean and as well in the USA. He is the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batter the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.