Finally, West Indies fight: John Campbell, known for controversial past, and Shai Hope, known for white-ball prowess, come good in Tests

The challenge was led by John Campbell and Shai Hope; their 177-run stand tiring India, putting them into the field for nearly two full days, and testing the measure of Gill’s captaincy in trying to buy a wicket as conditions no longer assisted them. Both arrived here with middling Test careers, and both leave with a Test ton under their belt.

Campbell had always been a promising player, but his career had been marked by a fair bit of controversy. In 2022, he was banned for four years by an anti-doping commission for failing to provide a blood sample; eventually that was reduced to 22 months. Upon return, he was suspended for four games again after failing to appear for the toss of a rain-hit domestic 50-over game.

Hope, on the other hand, has had big question marks around his abilities in the longest format. Prior to West Indies’ home series against Australia this summer, he had not appeared in Test whites for his side in four years. In that time, he had played over 120 T20 matches across franchise leagues and internationals, even captained the West Indies in white-ball cricket, and built up a reputation as a top ODI player with 18 centuries and an over-50 average in the 50-over format. But the 31-year-old came into the Delhi Test with a Test average shading 20, without a 50+ score in six-and-a-half years. He was not among the hopefuls to turn around his side’s fortunes with the bat.

That would change during his stand with Campbell. In 2019, the two put up the highest-ever opening partnership in ODIs, a stand of 365 against Ireland in Dublin. On Sunday and Monday, they played with the harmony of batters that had racked up records in the past.

Both built their innings around solid defence after the ball became old and soft but the pitch did not offer the kind of turn that would make those conditions lethal. They differed in styles of scoring though. Campbell would be the aggressor, going after the spinners knowing that is where the opportunity lies to score easy runs. Gill’s slightly lethargic, unchanging field positions allowed for the 32-year-old to be able to easily identify spots where he can score on a flat track that would not do anything unpredictable. He took on both Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, milking them on the leg side and lofting balls into space for boundaries. The sweep was extremely productive for him, bringing him a bunch of boundaries as well as the slog-swept six that brought up his maiden Test century.

Hope, on the other hand, relied on deft touch play instead. He played balls deliberately and teasingly late. Instead of going hard on the leg side, he knew that consistent scoring was possible with a straight bat down the V. Rotation of the strike took on greater importance than aggression and boundaries.

Both negotiated early reverse swing and a challenging opening spell from India reasonably well. Campbell even found scoring despite avoiding dismissal to bring up his century before a grave miscalculation, an ill-timed reverse sweep off Jadeja, which caught him plumb leg before. Hope put on a good partnership with skipper Roston Chase before falling once the new ball was taken. The rest of the order did not show the same kind of resilience, six wickets falling for just 40 runs before a big final wicket stand allowed for something to defend.

And while the West Indies go into the final day nearly certain of defeat, India needing only 58 runs with nine wickets in hand, slight satisfaction may have arisen from showing some fight. At least the protagonists of that battle feel so.

“I think it’s a big positive for us, having not gotten the best first innings, we came out second innings and batted over 100 overs,” Campbell told reporters here on Monday. “I think it was a great effort by the batsmen in the second innings.”