With West Indies women set to make a return to Test cricket after a 20-year hiatus from the sport’s longest format, men’s ODI captain Shai Hope welcomed the move as a step in the right direction.

Hope’s comments came after the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday announced its line-up for the Blockbuster Women’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) for 2025-2029.

The Maroon women reignite the region’s Test status when they play host to Australia for one match in 2026, 50 years after the Caribbean team made its Test debut against the Australians in 1976.

England women play against the West Indies in 2027, and this will be the first meeting between the two teams in this format since 1979. It was also confirmed that the West Indies women will travel to South Africa for an away Test in 2028.

Shai Hope.

WI women have not played a Test match since 2004. Their short record from four Test series stands at three draws and one loss to England.

The Maroon team played Australia (0-0) in 1976, India in 1977 (1-1), lost to England (2-0) in 1979, and drew against Pakistan (0-0) in 2004. The 1976 match against Australia was the last time West Indies played a Test match at home.

“It is always a step in the right direction. Anytime you get opportunities to excel and improve,” Hope said on Tuesday ahead of his team’s decisive ODI clash against England in Barbados.

“I think it is going to be great for the women’s game because anytime you’re playing the longer format, it tests your skills in a different way, and you can always use what you learnt from that format into the other formats. So I think it is a step in the right direction, and I wish them all the best,” he added.

Johnny Grave, whose tenure as Cricket West Indies CEO ended last week, raised the prospect of the Windies playing a Test at the iconic Kensington Oval, Barbados.

“When you have an iconic player who will go down in history of our game, in Hayley Mathews (Barbados), it seems right she will have the opportunity to wear a maroon Test cap and lead her team out, hopefully at her home ground of the Kensington Oval at some point in a Test,” Graves told the Stumped podcast.

“Our philosophy has been that red-ball cricket is where you can build your technique, hone your defence and look to score all around the wicket. If that is what we believe for the men, then it has to be the case for the women,” he added.

England fell to a crushing 347-run defeat in their one-off Test to India inside three days in Mumbai.

The hosts declared on 186 for six leaving England a target of 479 to chase down from the final two days of play, but it took India just one session to bowl them out for a first home victory in nine years.

Heather Knight top-scored for the visitors with 21 runs to her name as India swept up 10 wickets in just 27.3 overs.

England batter Tammy Beaumont admits players “feel more anxious” heading into a Test as they prepare to face India in a one-off match at the DY Patil Stadium from Thursday.

England have mostly played Test matches on home soil, the last in June when Australia won by 89 runs at Trent Bridge.

The last time England played red-ball cricket overseas was in January 2022, when they played out a dramatic draw against Australia.

Women’s Test matches are usually one-off games as part of a multi-format series and Beaumont thinks players feel more nerves around the longest format due to the fact they do not come around that often.

She told a press conference: “You certainly feel more anxious around a Test match week.

“You have the likes of me, Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt who have been playing international cricket for 12-14 years and we haven’t even played that many Tests, maybe 10 or 12, so if you think of that as white-ball cricket that is your first year.

“So, there are more nerves because we haven’t had the opportunity to master it. You are constantly a young player in Test cricket, no matter how old your body feels. In the men’s game 10 Tests is not even a career, it’s a start.

“I love Test cricket and each and every one of us would love to play more Test cricket and I’m almost interested to see what India do with the Australia Test match straight after, so if that goes well, I could see a future doing two-Test or three-Test series against the top nations, which I think would be amazing.”

England finish their tour of India with the Test after they sealed a 2-1 win in their recent three-match T20 series at the Wankhede Stadium.

Despite the gap between Tests, Beaumont will be looking to transfer some of her form from the summer.

The right-hander hit 208 against Australia, becoming the first English woman to score a Test double-century.

She added: “(We’re) not coming in with too many preconceived ideas of how the pitch is going to play or what a Test match in India might look like.

“We have found the wickets have played nicely and there’s a bit in it for the bowlers and batters, so not thinking you have to work on playing spin so much but it’s been a really good preparation period.

“Talking about something that happened six months ago (her double-hundred against Australia) can’t really count as form but certainly nice to know that was your last Test match and you go in with a lot of confidence.”

This will be England’s first Test in India since 2005.

Beaumont is hoping they can continue the momentum of interest injected into women’s cricket from the summer following the success of the Ashes and The Hundred.

“It’s good that we got the broadcast deal so people can watch it back home,” she said.

“On the whole it has been really positive as we got a lot of sellouts in the Ashes and into the Hundred the crowds every week were a record crowd.

“I think people are really taking notice of women’s cricket in England which is good to see and hopefully they will be right behind us for the Test as well.

“We want to inspire the next generation of female cricketers, not only in England but across the world, so we will be playing a way of cricket that people will want to watch.”