Shai Hope

Few in the Caribbean doubted his talent as a batter when he came through. He made his first-class debut in 2012-13, and propelled himself into consideration for the West Indies team after a superb season in 2014-15, when he scored 628 runs in the regional four-day competition. He followed that up with 538 runs at 67.25 the next season, and secured his maiden first-class double-hundred at his home ground, Kensington Oval, in March 2017.

That summer, all of 23 years old, he became the first player in 534 first-class matches at Headingley to score a hundred in each innings there - in a thrilling win against England where West Indies chased 322 in the fourth innings. Hope also scored an unbeaten 90 against Zimbabwe in his next series, but though credit in the bank kept him in the Test side for four more years, his average plummeted to the twenties, and he managed only two more half-centuries in his next 50 innings. He was dropped from the Test side in 2021.

He built a rock-solid reputation as a white-ball batter, though: between 2018 and 2023, he averaged over 60 in four out of six years in ODIs. Even during a relatively fallow period for West Indies cricket, he has been their standout batter in the format.

Consistency across formats propelled Hope to the West Indies white-ball captaincy in 2023. Late that year, his unbeaten 109 against England led West Indies to a memorable win and took him past 5000 runs in ODIs; he was the joint-fastest to the mark for them. His senior leadership at the international level played no small part in his recall to the Test side in 2025 for their home series against Australia - though it was an underwhelming comeback.