Shai Hope made his Test debut as a 21-year-old, having played just 14 first-class matches then. But few in the Caribbean doubted his talent as a batsman. Clive Lloyd gave him his West Indies cap, and coach Stuart Law insisted that he only needed one innings to get going. The world eventually got to know why the boy from Barbados was rated so highly when he became the first player, in 534 first-class matches, to score a hundred in each inning at Headingley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hope was 23 at the time, the youngest member of the XI, leading West Indies to victory with scores of 147 and 118 not out. They had been faced with a target of 322 – not since Bradman’s Invincibles rocketed to 404 for 3 in 1948 had a team chased that many on Yorkshire’s storied turf, and won. Adding to the occasion was the fact West Indies had been dismantled only a week ago, England beating them by an innings and 209 runs to ensure their fans could savour the advent of day-night Test cricket in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hope made his first-class debut in 2012-13, but propelled himself into consideration for the West Indies team after a superb season in 2014-15 when he scored 628 runs in nine matches – he was the fourth-highest run-getter in the tournament. He racked up 538 runs at 67.25 in 2015-16 – the highest average among the top 10 – and secured his maiden first-class double-hundred at his home ground, Kensington Oval, in March 2017<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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