West Indies have won two out of their three Test matches, which also included their maiden win of the current World Test Championship cycle. They defeated Sri Lanka by an innings in June and a drawn game later, handed Pakistan a similar, but slightly less intense, treatment.
They will have another go against Pakistan in Port of Spain on Sunday, which will decide who gets to take the series home. Pakistan have had a similar fate in this cycle to West Indies minus the comeback that the hosts have recently managed. The first Test, which they lost by 90 runs, was their eighth straight away loss. The last time they won a Test outside home was all the way back in 2023.
Pakistan did not begin with as much rotten luck as they now have. They won their first Test game against South Africa in a pretty dominating fashion. West Indies did not have that advantage. It took them eight games, and seven losses, to get to their first win.
‘We’re exactly where we want to be’
Captain Roston Chase is happy with the comeback they managed to exhibit.
“After having the year last year [West Indies won one and lost eight], we sat down with the plan and said that this is where we want to be. And as I said, we’re exactly where we want to be. We want to level up,” Chase told reporters at the Queen’s Park Oval on Friday.
“We want to just come into this second Test, not take anything for granted, just go through the processes that we’ve sat down and talked about. We want to come and execute them to the best of our ability. And look to get that second victory.”
Making home a fortress
Against Pakistan, West Indies are 1-0 up in the series, but Chase has his mind set on a greater target. He wants to make the home venues his team’s greatest strength and given the way West Indies’ bowlers performed in the first Test, this is hardly a distant dream.
“We’re very blessed and very happy for the results that we’ve been having at home so far. But I want to make home our fortress, where we make it very difficult for teams to come to the Caribbean and beat us. Because it’s our own conditions, we know them inside out, and better than the opposition. So I think we want to really make home advantage count, and we’ve been doing that well so far. So, as I said, we’re lucky to continue in the vein of form that we’ve been in, and to take victory in this second game.”
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