West Indies crashed to a humiliating 179-run defeat to hosts Bangladesh in the series decider in Mirpur, Dhaka on 23rd October, 2025. From the toss till the end of the match, Bangladesh outplayed West Indies in all facets of the game and won the match and series 2-1 to garner crucial points in the qualification race. While there were multiple reasons for West Indies loss, but there were some glaring issues as well. Here, we will list three reasons for their loss in 3rd ODI.
Inability to break the opening stand of Saif Hassan and Soumya Sarkar hurts West Indies.
Bangladesh won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to bat first. It was expected that West Indies will fight and make early inroads to create some pressure on the home side like they did in the previous two games. But that was not to be and the duo of Saif Hassan and Soumya Sarkar came out all guns blazing and tore apart West Indies. West Indies used spin and bowled medium pacer Justin Greaves as well, but it was to no avail.
They seemed to lack ideas and were not consistent with their lines and lengths. Credit to Bangladesh for coming out with the aggressive approach as the duo amassed 74 in the first 10 overs in what was supposed to be a minefield and tough pitch to bat on. Sarkar and Saif looked in total control of proceedings and scored runs at will without breaking a sweat and that was the worry for West Indies. Not only West Indies were wicketless in powerplay, but that carried on beyond that as even at the halfway stage they were 0 down. Both the batters gave their wickets away else a hundred was there for the taking.
They put on 176 for the first wicket before Saif fell in the 26th over. Sarkar too fell 9 short of his hundred but the damage was already done. Yes, West Indies pulled things back and restricted Bangladesh to under 300 from the position they were in, but the score of 296 was way above par on the wicket. Looking ahead, West Indies needs to be more incisive with their bowling and try and take early wickets to put the opposition under pressure. It was too easy for Bangladesh batters in the end. Bangladesh should have gotten more, but 296 was more than enough.
Batting failure as a whole exposes West Indies’ problems.
The bowlers did decently towards the back-end to keep the score to 296. Chasing 297, was always going to be a herculean task for the West Indies but the expectation was that they would show some fight against the Bangladesh bowlers. They had capable batters to do it, but they failed miserably as a whole. No one got going and lost wickets at regular intervals.
West Indies lost wickets in clusters from the get go even as both the openers got to double figures but couldn’t kick on. It was spin to win for Bangladesh this time as 4 bowlers were used and all of them were spinners and they did the job easily in the end. West Indies lost three wickets in the powerplay and continued to lose wickets at regular intervals. No batter got going and when the captain Shai Hope fell for a low score, the writing was on the wall. There is a saying that when you need hope, call on Shai Hope. But even he couldn’t give hope to West Indies. Once he fell in the 14th over, the game was as good as over.
It was a major batting collapse as no one showed resistance whatsoever as Bangladesh used four spinners to skittle out West Indies. Akeal Hosein’s 27-run cameo provided some respite and took the score over 100 runs else, West Indies would have faced more embarrassment. They were bowled out in the end for 117 in 30.1 overs. These collapses keep on happening all the time and West Indies must avoid these if they want to improve as a side. Showing resistance and resilience is the key and West Indies have shown none in this match if we are brutally honest. This is an area to work on if they want to automatically qualify for 2027 ODI World Cup.
Dysfunctional batting order exposes West Indies mindset of winning.
It was a struggle for the West Indies in all departments of the game in the third ODI. With the ball, they struggled but pegged things back a bit. But their main problem started when they had bat in hand against the Bangladesh spinners and faltered big time. What was even more surprising was the batting order used for this match, something that should be a talking point back home in the West Indies.
If one looks at the batting order for the West Indies, we will find that their best batter Shai Hope who no doubt keeps wickets as well batted at Number 5. Now, the norm generally is that the best batter should bat high up the order and bat most overs. Of course, with West Indies that happens by default as they lose early wickets but Hope should ideally bat at Number 4 or 3 if possible. He batted so well at Number 4 in the previous game and won it for West Indies, but here again he is batting at 5 to rescue the innings which he couldn’t.
Then we have the curious case of Roston Chase. He might have bowled decently with the ball, but with bat in hand we feel he is batting lower down the order. Yes, he got a duck yesterday, but he came into bat at 7 when the match was as good as over. Chase is a good batter and can anchor the innings. So, ideally, he should be batting at 5, but the coach Daren Sammy has other ideas. Batting at Number 7 means, that player is the finisher of the team. Roston Chase by all due respect is not a finisher. But if he is persisted with in this batting position, West Indies as a team will be finished.
West Indies needs to go back to the drawing board and address these glaring issues in order to comeback and make it through to the World Cup automatically. Such performances and decision-making could cost West Indies the direct qualification and they will be forced again to play the Qualifiers. So, these issues need to be addressed for the betterment of West Indies cricket.
What Lies Ahead.
The ODI series is done and dusted with Bangladesh the hosts clinching the series 2-1 against the West Indies. Both teams will now shift formats and play the shortest format of the game. The 3-match T20I series kicks off in Chattogram with all three matches being held there. The first of those clashes takes place on 27th October, 2025 at 5:30 PM IST. Bangladesh is expected to be led by Litton Das while Shai Hope will continue to lead West Indies.
All these matches are important as both teams fine tune their preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026. Let’s see and wait and watch who has the bragging rights against each other in this series when it gets underway on Monday.
Also Read: BAN vs WI: 3 Reasons For Bangladesh’s Heart-Breaking Defeat In 2nd ODI