Shai Hope’s India Tour: 4 Centuries in 7 Innings and India’s Bowling Gap

Shai Hope, West Indies wicketkeeper-batter and captain, smiling while wearing a maroon cap and dark training jersey.

Shai Hope’s India tour ended in Bengaluru on 17 October with the T20I series level at 2-2. Rain stopped the decider after 7.4 overs, the trophy was shared, and Hope was named Player of the Series.

He scored four centuries in seven innings, two of them in the ODI series against India. Only Everton Weekes (1948/49) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (2009/10) have also hit four hundreds against India on one tour.

The scorecards show 539 runs at 134.75. They hide how small India’s window to get him out was, and how fast it shut.

Match Hope Result
1st ODI, Thiruvananthapuram 12 India won by 8 wickets
2nd ODI, Guwahati 104 (94) India won by 8 wickets
3rd ODI, New Chandigarh 162* (143) West Indies won by 5 wickets
1st T20I, Lucknow 52 (37) India won by 8 wickets
2nd T20I, Ranchi 102* (45) West Indies won by 6 wickets
3rd T20I, Indore 5 India won by 14 runs
4th T20I, Hyderabad 102* (50) West Indies won by 24 runs
5th T20I, Bengaluru Did not bat No result

Every West Indies win on the tour came with a Hope century.

After 104 in Guwahati, the innings of the tour came in New Chandigarh. He kept wicket for all 50 overs in high humidity as India made 351/7. Jewel Andrew’s finger injury then pushed him up to open, and he batted through a groin problem to finish 162 not out off 143 balls.

West Indies reached 352/5 with 10 balls left, their highest successful ODI chase. No West Indies batter has scored more in a successful ODI chase. Hope later credited advice from MS Dhoni for how he paced it.

In Ranchi, India made 249/5 and West Indies slipped to 58/3. Hope and Sherfane Rutherford added 120 for the fourth wicket, and Hope finished 102 not out off 45 balls with nine sixes.

It was West Indies’ highest T20I chase and the highest ever against India, exposing India’s bowling gap.

Arshdeep Singh bowled him for five in Indore with a ball that jagged back. In Hyderabad, Hope replied with 102 not out off 50 balls, nine sixes again, as West Indies made 247/3 and won by 24 to level the series.

It was his third Player of the Match award of the tour.

“To be honest, they are a bit heavy, and we have got to look at the luggage weight. I think we are going to have some problems going back home.”

Shai Hope, after the fourth T20I in Hyderabad, 14 October 2026

Insider Read

India’s only real chance against Hope was before he got set. His two failures, 12 and 5, were short innings, and the Indore wicket needed a ball moving back off the seam. Once he was past that start, India lost the two plans that work against almost every set batter.

You cannot bowl dry to a batter happy to wait, because he refuses the bad shot. You cannot attack him either, because he is already scoring off your good balls. Hope did both in the same innings. That is why India’s bowling kept coming up short, and why Shreyas Iyer said the series could have been different had India bowled well in the second and fourth games.

What the Rain Took From West Indies

The washout cost West Indies a real shot at their first series win in India in more than 20 years. India were 118/5 in a nine-over game when the rain returned, and West Indies never batted. It also ended India’s four-year run of home T20I series wins.

Hope saw progress, not loss.

“We were very close. It’s something that we haven’t done in so many years. To get this far in the series, give ourselves a good chance, it obviously shows what we’re doing as a unit. We’re certainly progressing. The success doesn’t necessarily have to be series wins.”

Shai Hope, Player of the Series presentation, Bengaluru, 17 October 2026

On his own run:

“You still have to have that self-belief. Honestly, whenever I cross the line, even if I haven’t got any runs in the last two, three, four, five innings, I still believe that I can get the job done.”

Shai Hope, Player of the Series presentation, Bengaluru, 17 October 2026

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