Current Captain: Nicholas Pooran
Current Head Coach: Phil Simmons
Best Finish in T20 World Cups: Champions (2012, 2016)
Last Edition: Finished 9th out of 16 teams
West Indies have a rich legacy in the T20 format. They showed the world how to play T20s. If there is anything called T20 genes, the rest of the world inherited that from the Caribbean players.
The format suits their naturally aggressive and attacking style of play and that’s why it didn’t come as a surprise when they went on to claim two T20 World Cup titles, the most among all teams until now.
The Caribbean team has played under 12 captains, with Shivnarine Chanderpaul being the first player to lead them in this format. Darren Sammy has led the West Indies team in the most number of matches (47) while Kieron Pollard is second in the list with 39 caps to his name as the skipper. Nicholas Pooran is leading the team currently in T20Is and Phil Simmons is their head coach.
West Indies’ History in T20 Internationals
West Indies played their first T20 international in 2006 against New Zealand in Auckland and it turned put to be a spectacle. The match was tied as both teams ended up scoring exactly 126 runs. Since then, they have played 160 T20I matches and have won 66 games while losing 82. There has been a total of three tied games too, with nine matches yielding no result as well.
As far as their record in T20 World Cups go, the inaugural edition was a rather disappointing affair as they got eliminated right in the group stage. But they dominated the event for the next decade as they won the title twice (2012, 2016) and made it to the semifinals an equal number of times (2009,2014), all in the space of just five editions.
They kept showing the world again and again why they are called the Champions in this format. However, they delivered a really underwhelming performance in the 2021 T20 World Cup as they made an exit from the Super 12 stage. But West Indies will be looking to make ammends when they enter the 2022 edition of the tournament in Australia once again.
Who Holds the West Indies T20 International Records?
Hard-hitting opening batter and former captain Chris Gayle leads the batting charts with 1899 runs to his name in 79 T20Is. That includes two centuries and 14 fifties as well. His best score of 117 came against South Africa in Johannesburg in the 2007 T20 World Cup. It was the highest score by a West Indies batter in T20Is until Evin Lewis broke it with his unbeaten 125 against India in Kingston ten years later.
Marlon Samuels sits in second position in the list of West Indies batters with most T20I runs with 1611 runs in 67 games while Kieron Pollard is in third place with 1569 runs in 101 games.
Dwayne Bravo sits at the top when it comes to the list of highest wicket-takers for West Indies in T20Is. He has claimed 78 wickets in 91 games at an average of 26.10. Wrist spinner Samuel Badree is second in the list with 54 wickets to his name in 50 games whereas mystery spinner Sunil Narine sits in third place with 52 wickets in 51 games.
All of them have been terrific for the West Indies over the years but the record for the best bowling figures in T20Is by a West Indies bowler belongs to Keemo Paul, who claimed 5/15 against Bangladesh in Mirpur in 2018.
