Roston Chase has gone from anchorman to man under fire after beginning his captaincy tenure in the deep end.
From crisis man to captain under pressure: Chase’s most difficult introduction.
It was unexpected that Roston Chase would be named West Indies’ Test captain before to the 2025–27 World Test Championship in June 2025. It had been over two years since he had played Test cricket.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) looked to an experienced head to stabilise a period of change as their red-ball team was in flux and unable to settle on a combination capable of delivering home or away. But Chase’s task was never going to be easy. He was supposed to play his first three series as captain at home against Australia before travelling to India and New Zealand on the road later in the year. In the end, the results were dismal: seven losses in eight games, with only one tie saved in Christchurch.
Chase’s numbers have highlighted the collective hardships of the West Indies. He has scored nine single-digit runs in 16 innings as captain, with a best of 44 and a batting average of less than 14. Now, his total Test average is below 25. As captain, he is bowling more than 17 overs for every dismissal and giving up nearly 71 runs per wicket, making him the West Indies’ lowest-returning batter and one of their least productive bowlers in the current WTC cycle.
During the 0-2 loss in New Zealand, Chase gave up his status as the “crisis man” of Barbados and the West Indies—the batsman who remained composed in the face of collapses—and scored five of those nine single-digit runs. He was open about his own failings at the conclusion of the Mount Maunganui Test.
“Yeah, I think I had a tough series, very below par for my standards,” Chase said at the conclusion of the series. “I didn’t really lead from the front on the field.
“I thought that leading, in terms of words and encouraging and inspiring the team, that was all good and well. But in terms of going out there and producing for the team and letting the team have someone to look up to as a leader, I thought I let myself down and the team down as well.
“I want to lead both on the field and off the field in terms of encouraging and getting the best out of my players. I want to do that, but I want to go out there and show them that I’m not just talking it, I’m doing it as well and I’m giving my all for the team.
“So, yeah, I was a bit disappointed with my efforts. I thought I got some good balls in the series, but it’s Test cricket, so you will get those periods. But I still thought that I could have given some more. I’ve been working here on some of the deficiencies that the coaches have been seeing in terms of the dismissals. But, yeah, it’s always a work in progress.”
Chase’s 34th birthday will be the next opportunity for West Indies to accrue WTC points. Sri Lanka will embark on a multi-format trip of the Caribbean in June and July of 2026. Following a two-Test trip to Bangladesh in November, the West Indies will play home Test matches against Pakistan in July and August. This implies that they will only play six Test matches in 2026.