Shai Hope has 261 runs in four innings, and India get one more go at him in Bengaluru on Saturday
India and West Indies are level at 2-2, and the five-match T20I series will be settled at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on 17 October.
Oct 16, 2026
Shai Hope has batted four times in this T20I series and been out twice. He has 261 runs at a strike rate of 190.51, with an unbeaten hundred in each of West Indies’ two wins, and he is the main reason India have not already won it.
India won in Lucknow and Indore. West Indies won in Ranchi and Hyderabad, and Hope finished on 102 not out both times. Whoever wins in Bengaluru takes the series, and India’s T20I side then heads to New Zealand, where the first of five matches is on 22 October.
Four games, 1,746 runs
West Indies were bowled out for 171 in the opener, and Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 102 off 43 balls took India home in 14.4 overs. Nobody batting first has made less than 223 since.
India made 249 for 5 in Ranchi and lost, with West Indies getting there in 18.3 overs. India then defended 223 by 14 runs in Indore, and in Hyderabad West Indies made 247 for 3 and bowled India out for 223. Across the four games the two sides have scored 1,746 runs between them.
Sherfane Rutherford has 221 of those for West Indies, including 84 in the Ranchi chase. For India, Iyer has 159 at a strike rate of 214.86 and Sanju Samson has 152 with two fifties, the second a 56 off 23 balls in Hyderabad.
India’s bowling problem
The trouble has been at the other end. Of the India bowlers who have sent down more than two overs in the series, only Prince Yadav has gone at under ten an over. Arshdeep Singh took 3 for 44 to close out the Indore win and has five wickets in all, but his 16 overs have cost 175 runs. Mayank Yadav has 4 for 162 from 15.
Kuldeep Yadav played the first two games and has sat out the last two, with Prince Yadav picked ahead of him. Former India seamer Varun Aaron wants him back for the decider, arguing on Star Sports that a defensive plan tends to get punished at the Chinnaswamy and that India should go in with five bowlers and bat down to seven. There is no Jasprit Bumrah or Hardik Pandya in this squad to fall back on.
West Indies have their own wicket-takers in form. Roston Chase and Keemo Paul lead the series with six wickets each, Paul from just two games after taking 5 for 41 in Hyderabad.
What the Chinnaswamy record says
India have played eight T20Is at the Chinnaswamy, the first against Pakistan on Christmas Day 2012. They have won three and lost three, and the game against South Africa in June 2022 was washed out. The eighth was the tie against Afghanistan in January 2024, when Rohit Sharma made an unbeaten 121 and India won at the second super over.
India batted first in all eight, which makes Saturday’s toss more interesting than usual. Setting a target there has not always been enough. Glenn Maxwell’s unbeaten 113 took Australia past India’s 190 in February 2019, and South Africa knocked off 135 with 19 balls to spare that September.
First ball on Saturday is at 7pm IST, and the match is streaming on JioHotstar in India.