Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: After the West Indies opened their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 campaign with a victory over Scotland, former cricketer and broadcaster Ian Bishop offered a detailed assessment of the side’s balance, pointing out gaps in the squad, including the absence of a specialist wrist spinner.A fluent 64 from Shimron Hetmyer and a sensational spell of 5 for 20 from Romario Shepherd — which included a hat-trick — powered the West Indies to a 35-run win in their opening Group C fixture at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.
Reflecting on the team’s composition, Bishop said, “The West Indies are missing key pieces, particularly a wrist spinner. We haven’t found one and given him enough experience yet. A couple of the guys at the top– their batting isn’t as consistent as it should be, but they’ve got power. They’ve got some young fast bowlers.“If they’re fit, Jayden Seales is getting slightly better, but they are still not where I think they should have been after the last T20 World Cup in the Caribbean in 2024. They did better. I thought they could have gone further, so I still don’t know where to place them. The talent is there. It’s whether they can bring it all together,” said Hope on JioStar.Bishop also highlighted the workload being handled by head coach Daren Sammy and white-ball captain Shai Hope. “I think for the West Indies, there are a couple of things. They have Daren Sammy as coach across all formats. Shai Hope now plays all formats, so the energy they are expending and the planning that has to be done, while they are concentrating on Test cricket and 50-over cricket to qualify for the next World Cup, means their backroom staff have to be broad-minded enough to also plan for T20s and alleviate that workload from Shai Hope and, to some extent, from Daren Sammy.“Former Australia cricketer Mel Jones also weighed in on the West Indies’ preparation for the tournament, stressing the challenges of adapting to subcontinent conditions. “100 per cent, the players can draw from their IPL experience. But the difficulty is that you can’t just rely on those couple of players who have had that experience. They played New Zealand and South Africa, two very good oppositions, but in conditions that do not mimic what they are going to come up against in the subcontinent.“She added, “How do you then start to put into play all your game plans, all the role-playing and all those sorts of things, to get ready for the World Cup in the subcontinent when you’re not in the subcontinent? That’s the planning piece that I think they may have just missed a beat on there.“Could they have got over here and been involved in a tri-nation series, or done something along those lines, so that the players who have played IPL can start disseminating that experience and knowledge to other players in the squad?”The West Indies will look to build on their winning start when they face England on Wednesday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
