West Indies, Sri Lanka look to shake off rust after time away from Tests
Contents
Big picture – SL’s first Test in a year
Apparently, Sri Lanka are about to begin a Test series against West Indies on Thursday. Huge if true, because that would mean that Sri Lanka still have a Test team. And that West Indies also still have a Test team. Sri Lanka haven’t played this format for exactly a year, and West Indies haven’t played since December 2025. Sri Lanka have 12 Tests in the entire two-year World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle, which is the minimum allowed amount. West Indies have 15 Tests, one of those being a non-WTC game against Afghanistan.
This is the lay of Test cricket in 2026. It doesn’t matter that West Indies produced very arguably the greatest Test team in the history of the sport in the 1980s. It doesn’t matter that Sri Lanka produced Test cricket’s most prolific wicket-taker, in Muttiah Muralitharan. It mainly matters that both have tiny cricket economies in comparison to most other sides, and as such, they have each been shunted deep into Test cricket second-classhood – for this cycle at least.
Form guide
West Indies: LLDLL (Most recent first)
Sri Lanka: WDLLL
In the spotlight
Kemar Roach is six wickets away from becoming the fifth West Indies fast bowler to 300 Test wickets. West Indies’ fast bowling might just be the richest bloodline in all of cricket, so this would be no minor feat. Ahead of him on the West Indies list are all-time greats: Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Malcolm Marshall, although spinner Lance Gibbs was the first to get to 300, way back in the 1970s.
Behind Roach are more all-time greats: Joel Garner and Michael Holding. Roach’s journey has been a triumph of longevity – he has never played more than eight Tests in a calendar year. And he has not had the kind of fast-bowling support that the great names around him had had. But Roach has generally been good against Sri Lanka, and West Indies would love to have this milestone to celebrate some time during this series.
Pitch and conditions
The weather forecast for North Sound is good for the next few days. Temperatures are also forecast to stay a shade under 30 degrees Celsius, which both teams will find relatively comfortable. There has been no Test cricket at this venue since November 2024, so it’s difficult to predict how the track will play, but it has generally favoured seamers.
Team news
West Indies have a decision to make on who will keep wicket, but having had a decent run against Sri Lanka in the past, Joshua da Silva might get the spot. The bowling will be led by Roach, but the two Josephs, fast bowlers Shamar and Alzarri, will likely be in attendance. They could also think about playing a fourth seamer in Jayden Seales.
West Indies (probable): 1 John Campbell, 2 Tagenarine Chanderpaul, 3 Brandon King, 4 Kavem Hodge, 5 Shai Hope, 6 Roston Chase (capt), 7 Joshua da Silva (wk), 8 Jomel Warrican/Jayden Seales, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Kemar Roach
Sri Lanka have a fairly stable top order, but will be less sure of how their bowling attack should shape up. Of the seamers, Asitha Fernando is the likeliest to play.
Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Nishan Madushka/Lahiru Udara, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Kusal Mendis (wk), 7 Milan Rathnayake, 8 Ramesh Mendis, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Asitha Fernando, 11 Vishwa Fernando/Lahiru Kumara
Stats and trivia
- Sri Lanka’s most recent Test series in the West Indies, in 2021, also featured two Tests played at North Sound.
- Seales, if he plays, has a shot at getting to 100 Test wickets. He is currently sitting on 95.
- Sri Lanka have only ever won two Tests in the West Indies in their history. The most recent was a seamer-dominated Test in Bridgetown in 2018.