West Indies count the positives after a dazzling T20WC campaign

West Indies were knocked out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 on Sunday by co-hosts India in a virtual quarterfinal in Kolkata. Though a tough pill to swallow, the team leadership are counting the positives from a campaign that was not short on either quality or entertainment.

With 2016 World Cup winning captain Darren Sammy back at the helm as coach, the Caribbean side delivered an assured performance. Starting with the group stage, they won five matches on the trot before falling to South Africa and India in the Super Eights and missing out on the semi-final spot.

“I’m very proud of the boys,” Sammy said after the match against India. “The way they tried to embrace what we are doing in this tournament. Obviously, everyone will be disappointed to be knocked out of a tournament when you feel like you could have won it. It will be tough to cheer them up but I’m proud as a coach.”

Even on Sunday, the West Indies took the fight to India. Though they did not get the necessary acceleration in powerplay, they posted a challenging total of 195/4. It took a special innings from Sanju Samson, an unbeaten 97, the highest by any Indian batter in a run-chase at the T20 World Cup, to grind them to a halt.

“He played really well,” West Indies captain Shai Hope said in the post-match press conference.

“When you're chasing on a pitch like this in the Eden Gardens, it’s usually easier to score freely. But takin nothing away from him, like I said he's a quality player, he's been playing really well for so many years.

“It's a game of cricket, very small margins, and one team has to win. We were very precise with the way we wanted to go about playing, playing against each opposition throughout the entire campaign. And execution was the biggest thing for us. Today, we didn't execute as well as we wanted in the powerplay while batting.”

However, the power-packed West Indian batting line up had lit up the stage earlier in the tournament. During their Super Eight clash against Zimbabwe, the West Indies, powered by a 34-ball 85 by Shimron Hetmyer, breached the 250-barrier in this edition of the World Cup for the first time to post a total of 254/6. It is the second highest total of the 2026 World Cup and third overall in T20 World Cup history.

Hetmyer also finished with 19 sixes, the most by a player in a single T20 World Cup edition.

While Hope’s team was always expected to entertain with the bat, their bowling depth was a revelation. In the four group-stage matches they played, West Indies bowled their rivals inside 20 overs thrice. The former champions began their World Cup with a blockbuster performance from Romario Shepherd, who claimed a hat-trick and finished with 5/20 against Scotland on February 7.

“I thought our bowling was a lot better than previous series and this is when you really wanted to stand up the bowling especially the power players we really good,” Hope said, when asked about the positives from the tournament.

“From a batting standpoint, Shimron Hetmyer coming in at number three and doing what he does best. A lot of the batters coming in, contributing to those bigger totals that we got in this this tournament. Hetty played a really good tournament. Matthew Forde with the new ball, Akeal, Motie taking his wicket. Sheppey with a hat-trick and a fifer.”

“There's so many things that you could talk about from this tournament. I think the guys represented the region well and I think we all can go home with our heads held high.”

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