The West Indies toured India in 2025/26 for two Test matches and lost the series 0-2. R Kaushik’s tour report as well as the match reports appeared in the 2026 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.
India v West Indies in 2025/26
Test matches (2): India 2 (24pts), West Indies 0
Shubman Gill’s Test captaincy had started with a riveting 2-2 draw in England, where he led the way with 754 runs. His next challenge looked less demanding: two home matches against West Indies, who lay eighth in the rankings and had been bowled out for just 27 – the second-lowest total in Test history – by Australia in Kingston in July. They were low on confidence, and any realistic chance of being competitive disappeared once their pace spearheads, Alzarri and Shamar Joseph, were ruled out by injury. The other bowlers would manage only 13 wickets between them in this two-match series.
India were determined to prove their 3-0 rout by New Zealand the previous November, their first home series defeat for a dozen years, was an aberration. They surged to an innings win on an unusually grassy red-soil surface in Ahmedabad, before being forced to work harder on a slow, low track in Delhi.
Their batsmen filled their boots: KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (keeping wicket while Rishabh Pant recovered from the foot he broke in England), Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Gill all scored centuries. Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav took 12 wickets, but the bowlers were kept in the field for 200 overs in the second Test, when John Campbell’s maiden hundred and Shai Hope’s first in more than eight years ensured West Indies avoided another innings thrashing, though not a 2-0 defeat.
West Indies’ touring party to India, 2025/26
*RL Chase, KA Anderson, AS Athanaze, J Blades, JD Campbell, T Chanderpaul, JP Greaves, SD Hope, TA Imlach, BA King, J Layne, A Phillip, KA Pierre, JNT Seales, JA Warrican. Coach: DJG Sammy.
AS Joseph and S Joseph were both selected, but withdrew injured; Blades and Layne were added.
First Test at Ahmedabad, October 2-4, 2025
India won by an innings and 140 runs. India 12pts. Toss: West Indies. Debuts: J Layne, KA Pierre.
Gill’s wretched luck at the toss spilled over to a sixth consecutive Test, but Chase opted to bat on an unexpectedly green surface, when bowling might have been prudent. His decision was probably influenced by the absence of both pace-bowling Josephs – Alzarri and Shamar – but to expose a fragile line-up to India’s seamers was asking for trouble.
Delighted by the sort of lateral movement and bounce they seldom encounter at home, Bumrah and Siraj cashed in, sharing seven wickets to send West Indies packing for 162. It was high-quality pace bowling, and the batsmen had few answers: only Chase and top-scorer Greaves lasted more than an hour, and India were batting after tea. They lost Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan in quick succession, but were just 41 behind by stumps.
In England a couple of months earlier, India had boasted 12 centuries in five Tests. On the second day here, they added three, though in front of a disappointingly small crowd. Gill threw his hand away with an ill-advised reverse sweep immediately after reaching 50, and Rahul hit a dozen fours in a round 100, his third century in six Tests. But after he fell to Warrican, the fifth-wicket pair made the game safe with a stand of 206. Playing only because Rishabh Pant had not recovered from a broken foot, Jurel unleashed several eye-catching strokes on the way to a maiden century. His opportunities had been limited since an impressive debut at home against England early in 2024, but he made a good case for retaining his place as a batsman once Pant returned. Jadeja, meanwhile, continued the form he had shown in England, hitting five sixes in his sixth Test hundred.
Seales bowled his heart out with little luck, but his fellow seamers Greaves and the debutant Johann Layne did not take a wicket, while left-arm spinners Warrican and the 34-year-old newcomer Khary Pierre barely made an impression, despite obtaining some purchase on the second day.
With rain forecast for the last two days, Gill declared at the overnight score with a lead of 286, but West Indies never looked like making India bat again (and the rain never arrived). Siraj started the procession, and half an hour before lunch on the third day they were holed beneath the waterline at 46-5. India’s catching had been below par at times in England, but now Reddy and Jaiswal pouched screamers. There was some resistance from Athanaze, who survived more than two hours, and Greaves, who looked equally at home against pace and spin. But the second innings lasted only six balls longer than the first and, with Jadeja adding four wickets to his century, West Indies keeled over for 146, to lose with more than seven sessions remaining.
Player of the Match: RA Jadeja.
Second Test at Delhi, October 10-14, 2025
India won by seven wickets. India 12pts. Toss: India.
On the eve of the match, West Indies coach Daren Sammy had identified a lack of confidence as one of the main reasons for his side’s inability to compete with India in the opening game, but he said he had seen encouraging signs in training in Delhi. And though West Indies lost again, they did not let him down. Aided by a docile surface on which carry was non-existent and any deviation slow, they pushed the match to the final day, eked out their first 300-plus total in 16 attempts, and produced two centurions. Viewed against this backdrop, a seven-wicket defeat did not seem so bad.
Lifted by mid-Test conversations with Viv Richards and Brian Lara, who were in India to secure financial support at Cricket West Indies’ behest, opener Campbell scored his maiden hundred in his 25th Test, while Hope ended an eight-year wait to add to his twin tons against England at Leeds in August 2017. They were primarily responsible for West Indies staving off another innings defeat, but the result was never seriously in doubt, even if India were compelled to knuckle down.
Gill finally won the toss, in his seventh game in charge, and was rewarded with another spectacular display from Jaiswal. His 175, studded with 22 fours, was the cornerstone of a total of 518-5; it was his seventh Test hundred, and his fifth beyond 159. He and Sai Sudharsan, who fell short of a maiden century after a well-controlled innings, put on 193 for the second wicket. Jaiswal was eventually run out after a mix-up with Gill, but the captain continued unfazed to bring up a fifth hundred in seven Tests. The declaration, an hour before tea on the second day, was the cue for left-arm wrist-spinner Yadav to weave some magic. Several of the visiting batsmen got starts, but no one could kick on, as Yadav ended an 18-month wait for a five-for. He would add three in the second innings to bag the match award.
Though his bowlers had sent down 81.5 overs, Gill enforced the follow-on with a lead of 270. Another early finish loomed at 35-2, after Siraj removed Chanderpaul, and Washington Sundar bowled Athanaze, but West Indies finally showed some fight, thanks to Campbell and Hope. A flurry of boundaries forced Gill to spread the field, after which the pair batted sensibly: helped by the placid pitch, they kept India at bay for almost 50 overs. Campbell and Hope already boasted the second-highest ODI partnership – 365 against Ireland in May 2019 – and they flourished again, putting on 177, before Campbell gave India an opening with an ill-advised reverse sweep against Jadeja.
Hope survived until the new ball, before falling to Siraj, which began a clatter of six wickets for 40: at 311-9, West Indies were only 41 ahead. But Greaves, with a neat half-century, put on 79 with Seales to stretch the lead. Bumrah, who did not bowl until the 33rd over, eventually snapped the resistance, having Seales caught in the deep, but West Indies’ 390 was a vast improvement on their recent efforts, and ensured the match entered the final day.
Shrugging off the early loss of Jaiswal, India reached their target of 121 with few alarms after little more than an hour on the fifth morning, to complete a 2-0 sweep and claim full points in the fledgling World Test Championship. It was their 122nd home win in a Test, one ahead of South Africa, and behind only Australia (262) and England (241).
Player of the Match: K Yadav. Player of the Series: RA Jadeja.
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