Headingley hundreds to Barbadian basher: The seven shapeshifting years of Shai Hope

On August 25, 2017, Shai Hope stepped onto the turf at Headingley in Leeds, to play his 12th Test match. Until that point, the youngster had shown promise, although the record didn't reflect it. He had scored just 391 runs in red-ball cricket for West Indies, and averaged under 20 despite being a specialist batter.

But in that match, he came into his own. Coming in at 35-3 in West Indies' first innings, he put on 246 runs alongside Kraigg Brathwaite and eventually scored 147. In the second dig, things got even better as Hope struck an unbeaten 118 to help his side chase down 322 and secure an improbable win on English soil. Headingley has hosted first-class cricket since 1890, but Hope was the first to score two tons in a match in the format there.

In 2017, Hope averaged 45.5 across 19 Test innings. It was by far the standout year of his red-ball career. The Headingley hundreds boosted his reputation significantly, particularly in England, and a couple of nineties against Pakistan and Zimbabwe were other highlights that year.

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Shai Hope Mark I: The king of 50-over cricket

Headingley was the turning point of Shai Hope's red-ball career – or rather, it should have been.

Instead, he went on to play 26 more Tests over the next four years, and never hit a hundred again. He would cross fifty just four times. At the time of writing, it has been nearly three years since he donned Test whites.

In ODI cricket in 2017, Hope averaged 33.3 across 19 innings. He struck at 67, an acceptable number in a bygone era, just not the one he was playing in. But something curious happened. No sooner did Hope's Test form fall off a cliff, did his performance in ODIs skyrocket.

In 2018, Hope batted like a man possessed. He managed 875 runs in 18 matches at well over 60. He struck at 75 and reeled off three unbeaten tons – two in Bangladesh and one in India. He didn't stop there: the following year saw him notch up over 1,300 runs in 26 innings. The Covid years of 2020 and 2021 saw limited game time, but Hope continued to average significantly more than 50.

All the while, his red-ball form continued to dip, and Hope found himself dropped after the Sri Lanka tour of November 2021. In a way, his informal exit from Test cricket served to bookend the metamorphosis he had undergone. Initially sparking hopes of becoming the next great red-ball batter from the Caribbean, he was now closing in on legendary status in the 50-over format.

Shai Hope Mark II: At home in T20 cricket

But this is old news at this point. Shai Hope has remained a pre-eminent ODI batter for the best part of five years now. What is new, is that his career has seen another transformation – into cricket's equivalent of a gun-slinging cowboy.

As his form in the longer formats waxed and waned, one thing about Hope remained constant. He never quite looked the part in cricket's shortest format. In the Caribbean, that spiritual home of T20 batting, here was one who just couldn't seem to master it. Naturally, he didn't play much internationally. West Indies always had better options available.

Of course, a player with Hope's talent showed flashes of brilliance. His form in the 2018 Caribbean Premier League, for example, was comfortably above average, but he failed to replicate that on a consistent basis.

Hope began a resurgence in the T20 format, which coincided with a shift down the batting order, from opener to No.3 and at times even No.4. It began in the 2023 Bangladesh Premier League, where he scored 223 runs at a strike rate of 137. Later that year, he slammed four fifties and a hundred in the Caribbean Premier League, averaging 53 and striking at 140.

Hope earned a maiden IPL contract in 2024 with the Delhi Capitals on the back of these performances. While he did not light the tournament on fire, the full range of Hope's improved T20 game was on show during a blistering 41 off 17 balls against the Mumbai Indians.

The change in batting position was not the only one he made: Hope showed the signs of a batter who had fully embraced the T20 game. His stance was more open and his backlift shorter and quicker. He was more crouched at the crease, coiled like a spring, while his front foot occasionally started to clear the way for an explosive swing of the blade – all departures from the classical, almost demure, style on show in Headingley and largely throughout his career.

Perhaps most hearteningly, Hope's uptick in the T20 format has not come at the cost of success in his best format. As in T20 cricket, Hope moved down the order in the 50-over format at the start of 2023, following a lean year (by his standards) in 2022. This came with an instant impact, as he slammed an unbeaten 128 in South Africa to help his side post their highest-ever total against the Proteas.

His year went from strength to strength in his new position. For the first time in Hope's ODI career, he registered a strike rate of over 100 in a calendar year, and averaged 69 to go with it. These numbers were boosted by a 132 against Ireland, but he also notched up 63 not out against India in August and 109 not out and 68 against England in December.

What will Shai Hope's next evolution be?

He remains by and large the same classical batter he was when he broke onto the scene, but Hope now possesses an edge of brute force and power-hitting that has helped him force his way back into the West Indies' T20I setup. What of his red-ball game?

Hope has often spoken in an upbeat manner about his Test career. When he returned to England in 2020, he was very clear: he wanted to find his way to success in the format, and ensure that Headingley was no fluke. But increasingly, it seems likely that it will simply fade away.

Since his last Test match, he has played a grand total of three first-class matches; one in May 2022 and two in April 2023. He has done well, with 311 runs at an average of 62 but that level of participation isn't what you might expect from someone burning to make a return to the format at international level.

Last month, Ian Bishop mentioned hearing about Hope being asked to return by Cricket West Indies for the Test series in Australia in January 2024. However, Hope had declined citing lack of match practice. If this is true, he knows the door could be open to a Test recall but has taken the initiative himself to shut it.

Quite possibly, this is worth ruing. Anyone who watched his twin hundreds would have sworn to you at the time that he was born to play Test cricket. Rarely, if ever, did a ball he hit go more than half a foot off the ground, and every shot pinged off his blade as if it had been catapulted along the turf. Indeed, there may be times when Shai Hope looks at his Test average of 25 with more than a twinge of regret.

But there is understated beauty in the twists and turns Hope's career has given us. From a serious Test prospect, he has become a genuine ODI great – first at the top of the order and then in the middle. His ongoing retooling as a T20 batter makes you wonder whether he might even unlock another gear in his best format.

It's exciting to think of what Hope's next cricketing avatar could be. Nobody knows, but one thing is for sure – dread it, run from it, the 'Shaipshifter' arrives all the same.

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