West Indies v Australia in 2025: Ball-dominated series produces historic low

West Indies v Australia in 2025

Test matches (3): West Indies 0 (0pts), Australia 3 (36pts)
Twenty20 internationals (5): West Indies 0, Australia 5

The memory of Shamar Joseph racing around the Gabba, having bowled West Indies to a monumental victory over Australia early in 2024, ensured a third Test was added to the itinerary for this tour. The move appealed to cricket romantics and globalists alike, though perhaps less so by the final throes of this series, when Australian team-mates ribbed Sam Konstas for a misfield which allowed West Indies to move past New Zealand’s all-time Test low of 26. It didn’t delay the conclusion: Mitchell Starc, who had earlier claimed his 400th wicket in his 100th Test, ended the innings on 27.

With existential threats to West Indian cricket beyond the point of cliche, the hosts needed that Brisbane victory to be a springboard. Instead, it looked more and more like an anomaly. Not only did West Indies lose all three Tests resoundingly, they became the first Test-playing side to be whitewashed in a five-game T20 series. And yet a combined 8-0 scoreline did not tell the full story. Despite losing all three tosses in the Tests (and all five in the Twenty20s), West Indies were in the running in each match after two days. Joseph and Jayden Seales repeatedly troubled Australia, to the extent that Steve Smith’s 71 in Grenada was their highest score of the series.

This was an oddly timed tour for the Australians, coming straight after the World Test Championship final defeat by South Africa. The same squad were named for both assignments, but there was a clear change of direction following the Lord’s loss, with Marnus Labuschagne consigned to the role of spare batsman, and Konstas returning to the side for the first time since his whirlwind couple of Tests against India at the turn of the year. The selectors hoped he could nail down his position for the Ashes, but the opposite happened: he looked like a boy among men, making just 50 runs from six innings, despite being reprieved three times. Konstas’s battles drew attention from the slim pickings of his opening partner, Usman Khawaja, twice his age. But it was not a complete batting disaster for Australia: Cameron Green emerged as a positive, while the middle order – Alex Carey in particular – provided much more than nuisance value.

West Indies were let down by their batting, though their fielding was woeful too. Brandon King’s 75 in Grenada was their sole half-century of the Tests, while Kraigg Brathwaite’s form fell away so far that he was dropped for the final game, after winning his 100th cap in Grenada.

The 20-over series was expanded to five games, as preparation for the T20 World Cup. Australia’s batting was bolstered by the introduction of Tasmania’s big-hitting Mitch Owen, while Tim David whacked a 37-ball century – a national record – in St Kitts. Unlike in the Test series, West Indies’ bowling was now the problem, as Australia chased down totals of 170-plus in all five games. The second, in Jamaica, was an international swansong for Andre Russell.

After the humiliation of the 27 all out in Kingston, West Indian board president Kishore Shallow issued an SOS to Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards and Brian Lara. But it seemed a task beyond even those titans.

Australia’s touring party to the West Indies, 2025

*PJ Cummins (T), SA Abbott (20), XC Bartlett (20), SM Boland (T), AT Carey (T), CPL Connolly (20), TH David (20), BJ Dwarshuis (20), NT Ellis (20), JM Fraser-McGurk (20), CD Green (T/20), AM Hardie (20), JR Hazlewood (T), TM Head (T), JP Inglis (T/20), UT Khawaja (T), SJ Konstas (T), MP Kuhnemann (T/20), M Labuschagne (T), NM Lyon (T), MR Marsh (20), GJ Maxwell (20), MJ Owen (20), MW Short (20), SPD Smith (T), MA Starc (T), BJ Webster (T), A Zampa (20). Coach: AB McDonald.

Marsh captained in the T20s. Hazlewood (workload issues) and SH Johnson (back trouble) withdrew from the T20 squad, and were replaced by Bartlett and Fraser-McGurk. Short injured his side, and did not play in the T20 series.

First Test at Bridgetown, Barbados, June 25-27, 2025

Australia won by 159 runs. Australia 12pts. Toss: Australia. Test debut: BA King.

Half an hour after stumps on the second day, West Indies coach Daren Sammy bemoaned a series of decisions by the South African third umpire, Adrian Holdstock. He tried to temper his discontent with specks of diplomacy, but he had a point. Chase, West Indies’ new captain, and Hope, both returning to the Test side after long absences, had steered the hosts to 139-5 early in the second session, just 41 behind Australia’s modest total.

By the time drinks were called in the afternoon session, Chase had gone for 44 and Hope for 48, both in debatable fashion, and the first-innings advantage ended up as just ten. Chase was adjudged leg-before to Cummins, who continued his knack of removing well-set batsmen: the wicket took him past Richie Benaud’s Australian record of 138 as captain, with only Imran Khan (187) ahead. Given out by Richard Kettleborough, Chase sent the decision upstairs: despite a confusing sequence of Ultra Edge marks, Holdstock upheld the call, much to West Indies’ chagrin. The sense of injustice intensified when Hope was deemed by Holdstock to have been caught behind by Carey, a stunning one-hander, though the TV evidence suggested it had not carried.

So incensed was Sammy, whose team had also been on the wrong end of a contentious call from Holdstock in their recent one-day series in England, that he questioned his integrity, costing 15 per cent of his match fee. In his first Test since adding the long-form portfolio to his white-ball duties, Sammy also agreed that many of West Indies’ wounds were self-inflicted. They dropped seven catches, including three by Brandon King on his first day as a Test cricketer. These errors helped shape a 159-run win for Australia, clinched in the dying moments of the third day.

Cummins had chosen to bat, ensuring the recalled Konstas was immediately in the fray. Shamar Joseph had suggested Konstas ought to “watch out”, though he wasn’t the only one who should have heeded the warning: Joseph looked as threatening with the new ball as he had in Brisbane, taking four in the first innings, and nine in the match, on a trickier pitch than some in the Australian camp had expected. Konstas went for three, trapped by an inducker, while Joseph should also have had Khawaja for six, only for Chase to make a mess of it at first slip, one of five drops off Joseph’s bowling.

After failures for Green and Inglis, Australia were in trouble at 22-3 (Steve Smith was at home in New York nursing an injured finger, and Marnus Labuschagne dropped). Khawaja ground his way to 47 in almost four hours, while Head made a typically punchy 59, before some late tonking by Cummins dragged the total to 180; Seales uprooted the tail to finish with 5-60.

But Australia’s ever-dependable quicks made early inroads, and West Indies slipped to 53-4 late on the opening day. King went early on the second, before Hope and Chase guided them towards parity. Trailing by ten, Australia might have lost Konstas twice before he had scored, only for the fielders to let Joseph down again. Instead, Konstas endured an agonising 53 minutes at the crease: he switched between extremes of defence and attack, before dragging Joseph on for five. Khawaja had already gone, and Inglis and Green followed before stumps, leaving Australia only 55 ahead.

Not for the first time, the middle order saved the day. Head, Webster and Carey all reached 60, and handy contributions from the tail meant West Indies needed 301. It was a steep ask, and the chase was wretched. Campbell tried to lap-scoop Hazlewood on 23, sparking a collapse to 86-8, of which Hazlewood took five. Joseph blasted four sixes in an innings of 44 that included a drop at deep mid-wicket by Konstas, which threatened to stretch the match into a fourth day. But Lyon removed Joseph and Seales in the last over, minutes before darkness descended on Bridgetown.

Player of the match: TM Head.

Second Test at St George’s, Grenada, July 3-6, 2025

Australia won by 133 runs. Australia 12pts. Toss: Australia.

Had rain not wiped about a session from the third day, this Test would probably have ended – like the first – inside three, with a similar winning margin. It was all rather predictable, as Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy at the earliest opportunity, and continued a stranglehold spanning more than three decades. This time the West Indians couldn’t blame the umpiring; neither was their catching so poor. The problem was a dearth of batting quality, which left them unable to counter Australia’s pace on a sporting track.

Even so, as in Barbados, West Indies had been well placed by the end of the second day: Australia were 12-2 in their second innings, leading by just 45. Unlike in the first Test, though, they now had Smith, cleared to play after his finger injury. He was protected in the field, shifting out of the slip cordon for the quicks, but looked untroubled during his second-innings 71, before unexpectedly falling to Greaves’s military medium. Green, whose form had been disappointing since returning to the Test arena at Lord’s the previous month, finally made a mark at No.3 with a gritty half-century, playing second fiddle to Smith. Their partnership of 93 was the cornerstone of Australia’s 243, enough to take the game beyond West Indies.

Cummins had batted first again on a pitch apparently so seamer-friendly that the hosts left out their vice-captain, slow left-armer Jomel Warrican, to make room for another paceman in Phillip. Konstas and Khawaja (who passed 6,000 Test runs) started encouragingly, but both departed with the score on 47, before Smith was well caught in the deep by Phillip off Alzarri Joseph. Green was dropped just before lunch by Campbell, but picked out gully later in the same over. And it was 110-5 when Head was hurried by Shamar Joseph, but again Webster and the more aggressive Carey revived Australia, putting on 112 to help lift the total towards 286.

Brathwaite had entered his 100th Test under pressure after an unproductive run, which continued when Hazlewood had him caught and bowled before he had scored. Cummins left mouths agape when he dived to take a one-handed return catch of his own to account for Carty, but King played beautifully, to keep West Indies in contention.

They reached 169-4, before Cummins made another crucial intervention, bowling Hope; at the same score, King tickled one from Lyon on 75. The Josephs slogged, while Phillip and Seales hung on, until Head ended the innings late on the second day – though there was time for the Australian openers’ struggles to continue, Seales removing both. Next day, however, the other batsmen paved the way for victory. After Smith and Green’s half-centuries, Carey made a typically businesslike 30. West Indies needed 277, but crept only halfway to their target. Campbell fell for a duck, Carty looked out of his depth, and his involvement in the Test – and the series – ended inauspiciously when he edged Webster.

The seamers kept pressing, and this time the middle order offered scant resistance. Other than Chase, no one lasted an hour. The tail again employed the long handle: Lyon finished with three for 42 from 5.3 overs. But the upshot was that West Indies were knocked over in 195 balls, five more than in their second innings in Barbados. Sammy blamed the malaise on failings in the Caribbean first-class system.

Player of the match: AT Carey.

Third Test at Kingston, Jamaica, July 12-14, 2025

Australia won by 176 runs. Australia 12pts. Toss: Australia. Test debut: KA Anderson.

A couple of days before the match, Sabina Park’s new electronic scoreboard was out of action. And when the Test reached its sorry conclusion, West Indian fans might have wished it had stayed that way. There, in all its horror, was the number 27 – confirmation that Australia had just skittled their team for the second-lowest total in almost 150 years of Test cricket.

Australia’s coach, Andrew McDonald, said there were times when this match – the second day/night Test in the Caribbean – had barely resembled cricket, and he had a point. While the venue itself was more familiar to Australia than Grenada, the combination of new floodlights (lower than those typically used at the big Australian venues) and the rarely used pink Dukes ball meant this was something of a mystery assignment. As if to emphasise the point, they were confronted with devilish movement in the nets.

Because of the early Jamaica sunset and research by team analyst Tom Body, Australia’s selectors dropped Nathan Lyon for the first time in a dozen years, opting to play an extra seamer in Boland. Conversely, West Indies recalled slow left-armer Warrican for paceman Anderson Phillip, but axed Kraigg Brathwaite (after 100 Tests) and Keacy Carty, calling up Louis and the Guyanese debutant Kevlon Anderson.

Cummins won his third toss, and batted once more, but Konstas was again unable to make an impact, despite changing his guard. Dropped by Anderson on one, he looked all at sea while making 17, before succumbing to Greaves’s movement. Khawaja hung on beyond the first interval, but Green and Smith did the bulk of the work. West Indies toiled as Campbell, Louis and Alzarri Joseph all picked up niggles, but Seales and Shamar Joseph were a handful once the lights came into effect. Australia lost eight for 96, and were all out for 225, having resorted to slogging amid a sense that these were no conditions for batting properly.

With both openers sent for scans, King and Anderson went in first – and Anderson was the only wicket to fall before the close, bowled by Starc. Next day, all three of the hosts’ casualties were cleared to bat, but runs were hard to come by, and wickets fell steadily. And when they tried to up the ante, they over-compensated: Louis batted for 57 minutes, before he was bowled seeking to hoist Hazlewood through mid-wicket, Greaves was run out, and Campbell top-scored with 36. Boland picked up three in a score of 143, and Australia led by 82.

The game veered into overdrive when Australia batted on the second night. Konstas’s shocking series ended when he nudged Shamar Joseph to gully for a duck, and Sabina Park rocked as Alzarri Joseph proved irresistible. Only Green withstood the onslaught, while Carey was struck on the helmet and did not take the field on the final day. Australia were 99-6 by stumps, and lost their remaining four for 22 next morning. West Indies needed 204: tough in the conditions, but not impossible.

By the end of the first over, victory had been more or less forgotten. Starc had Campbell caught behind first ball by stand-in wicketkeeper Inglis, Anderson was trapped in front by the fifth, and King bowled by the sixth: nought for three. Louis was plumb lbw in the fifth over – Starc’s 400th wicket, in his 100th Test – and when Hope was leg-before two balls later, Starc had 5-2 in 15 balls, the quickest (and cheapest) five-for from the start of a Test innings.

Inglis took his second catch when Chase nicked Hazlewood, leaving West Indies reeling on 11-6, and in danger of undercutting New Zealand’s 70-year-old Test low of 26, set against England at Auckland in March 1955. Greaves got them level, but edged Boland to second slip. As if the day needed more drama, Boland then removed Shamar Joseph lbw, before finding perfect seam movement to ping the top of Warrican’s off stump and become the tenth Australian man to take a Test hat-trick.

Only a Konstas misfield allowed West Indies to creep to 27, before Starc skittled Seales – and returned serve with a pointed finger after Seales’s extravagant gesture when removing him earlier in the game. There were seven ducks in the innings, another Test record. The match was over before the notional halfway point and, despite all the chat about the challenge of the lights, only one West Indian wicket fell in a night session. After a sobering first series as captain, Chase was realistic: “It’s heartbreaking to be in a position like this. It has been recurring for the whole series, which makes it all the more disappointing. It is quite easy to assess – the bowlers kept us in it all along, but the batters never really clicked.”

Player of the match: MA Starc. Player of the series: MA Starc.

1st T20I At Kingston, Jamaica, July 20, 2025 (floodlit). Australia won by three wickets. West Indies 189-8 (20 overs) (SD Hope 55, RL Chase 60, SO Hetmyer 38; BJ Dwarshuis 4-36); Australia 190-7 (18.5 overs) (CD Green 51, MJ Owen 50). PoM: MJ Owen. T20I debut: MJ Owen (Australia). In his first international innings, Mitch Owen hit six sixes (and no fours) from 27 balls.

2nd T20I At Kingston, Jamaica, July 22, 2025 (floodlit). Australia won by eight wickets. West Indies 172-8 (20 overs) (BA King 51, AD Russell 36; A Zampa 3-29); Australia 173-2 (15.2 overs) (JP Inglis 78*, CD Green 56*). PoM: JP Inglis. T20I debut: MP Kuhnemann (Australia). Andre Russell retired from international cricket after this match, his 142nd white-ball game for West Indies (he also played one Test). He faced 17 balls and hit four sixes.

3rd T20I At Basseterre, St Kitts, July 25, 2025 (floodlit). Australia won by six wickets. West Indies 214-4 (20 overs) (BA King 62, SD Hope 102*); Australia 215-4 (16.1 overs) (TH David 102*, MJ Owen 36*). PoM: TH David. T20I debut: J Blades (West Indies). Tim David reached 50 in 16 balls, and 100 in 37, both records for Australia; his maiden international century included 11 sixes – four in succession off Gudakesh Motie.

4th T20I At Basseterre, St Kitts, July 26, 2025 (floodlit). Australia won by three wickets. West Indies 205-9 (20 overs) (SE Rutherford 31; A Zampa 3-54); Australia 206-7 (19.2 overs) (GJ Maxwell 47, JP Inglis 51, CD Green 55*; J Blades 3-29). PoM: GJ Maxwell.

5th T20I At Basseterre, St Kitts, July 28, 2025 (floodlit). Australia won by three wickets. West Indies 170 (19.4 overs) (SE Rutherford 35, SO Hetmyer 52; BJ Dwarshuis 3-41); Australia 173-7 (17 overs) (CD Green 32, TH David 30, MJ Owen 37; AJ Hosein 3-17). PoM: BJ Dwarshuis. PoS: CD Green.

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