The dry spells behind Jomel Warrican's Test harvest

After Dhaka, the talk is that Jomel Warrican has become the bowler West Indies should build their Test attack around. His fourth Test five-for bowled Bangladesh out for 272, even with Shadman making a hundred, and gave Campbell a platform to lead the reply with a fifty.

His recent record backs the shape of that view. In his eight men's Tests over the last two years he took 30 wickets at an average of 22.23, against 29.22 for all Test bowlers in that time. His economy rate of 2.72 is well under the norm of 3.46.

Across a career that began in 2015, his bowling average is 29.86. For a left-arm spinner in his second decade of Test cricket, the last two years are a late harvest.

Is Warrican West Indies' most reliable wicket-taker?

Reliable is a stretch, because his wickets arrive in harvests and droughts. Against Pakistan in January 2025 he took ten in one Test and nine in the next, then returned to them in August 2026 with six wickets for 150 from 57.3 overs.

In between came the dry season: none for 18 and none for 33 against Australia, one for 102 and four for 137 in India, and none for 56 in the first Test against Pakistan this summer.

That is why our ratings are cooler than his average. They place him 40th of 75 Test bowlers, worth 2.19 runs a match less than an average bowler.

Should West Indies lean on him in Sylhet?

Yes, on the strength of what he does at his best. Three of his career five-fors and his only ten-wicket match have come in the last two years, and Dhaka has now added another. That is a match-winning return, and a captain on a subcontinental tour should give it the overs.

Sylhet will be a stiff test of it. Our forecast gives West Indies a 36% chance of winning the second Test, against 48% for Bangladesh.

Pick him, then, and bowl him long. But a record that swings from ten wickets in a match to none at all does not earn the title of reliable wicket-taker. Warrican has brought in a fine harvest; he has yet to show he can bring it in every season.