England vs West Indies Test Cricket Head-to-Head & Stats

Simon Lewis

Editor

Last updated: 29 Jul 2024

Simon Lewis 29 Jul 2024

Share this article

England vs West Indies Test cricket rivalry spans nearly a century.
West Indies dominated from the 1950s to 2000; England has been stronger since.
Upcoming 2024 series in England: Tests at Lord's, Trent Bridge, and Edgbaston.

Brian Lara sweeps against England on his way to 400*. (credit: Tom Shaw / Getty Images)

England and the West Indies have almost a hundred years of Test cricket competition between them, with the West Indies dominating from the 1950s until the year 2000. England have been the stronger side in the last 25 years.

England vs West Indies Head-to-Head Record

England won the first Test between the sides at Lord’s in 1928, winning all three Tests of that series by an innings.

One of England’s best spells against the West Indies was from 29 July 2000 to 25 April 2015, during which the West Indies won just one of the 28 Tests they played against England, who won 19 Tests, with nine drawn.

The West Indies enjoyed a greater spell of dominance when (mostly captained by Clive Lloyd) they went 29 Tests unbeaten against England, with 20 wins and nine draws (30 March 1974 to 8 August 1988). That spell included 10 wins in a row, as well as 14 wins and one draw in a 15-match stretch.

Info	Played	England Wins	West Indies Wins	Draws
Overall	166	54	59	53
In England	92	39	31	22
In West Indies	74	15	28	31

Latest Results, England vs West Indies

Start Date	Result	Margin	Venue	Country
26 Jul, 2024	England	10 wickets	Edgbaston	England
18 Jul, 2024	England	241 runs	Trent Bridge	England
10 Jul, 2024	England	Inns & 114 runs	Lord’s	England
24 Mar, 2022	West Indies	10 wickets	St George's	West Indies
16 Mar, 2022	Drawn	-	Bridgetown	West Indies
8 Mar, 2022	Drawn	-	North Sound	West Indies
24 Jul, 2020	England	269 runs	Manchester	England
16 Jul, 2020	England	113 runs	Manchester	England
8 Jul, 2020	West Indies	4 wickets	Southampton	England
9 Feb, 2019	England	232 runs	Gros Islet	West Indies
31 Jan, 2019	West Indies	10 wickets	North Sound	West Indies
23 Jan, 2019	West Indies	381 runs	Bridgetown	West Indies
7 Sep, 2017	England	9 wickets	Lord's	England
25 Aug, 2017	West Indies	5 wickets	Leeds	England
17 Aug, 2017	England	inns & 209 runs	Birmingham	England

Test records England vs West Indies

West Indies’ Brian Lara has twice broken the record for the highest Test score of all time in Tests against England… and both Tests were played at St John's in Antigua. Lara broke West Indies legend Sir Garfield Sobers’ then-record score of 365 not out when he scored 375 against England in 1994. Lara again claimed the record when he scored 400* against England in 2004.

England’s Andy Sandham racked up the next-highest score in Tests between England and the West Indies when he scored 325 at Kingston in 1930. The highest score by an English batter against the West Indies in recent times was Alastair Cook’s 243 in 2017.

There have been eight 8-wicket hauls in an innings in matches between the two sides. Curtly Ambrose recorded the best figures when he took 8/45 at Bridgetown in 1990, followed by England’s Angus Fraser, with figures of 8/53 at Port of Spain in 1998. Fraser also features at fourth on the list for his 8/75 at Bridgetown in 1994. The late South African-born England all-rounder Tony Grieg is 5th on the list, having taken 8/86 at Port of Spain in 1974.

Legends of England vs West Indies

The teams have played for the Wisden Trophy since 1963, but in 2022 it was replaced by the Richards-Botham Trophy, in honour of Somerset County Cricket pals Viv Richards (West Indies) and Ian Botham (England), two of the all-time greats of the game.

Richards was a devastating batter who could take the best attacks apart with classic strokes to all parts of the ground. He had a Test average of 62.36 in 36 Tests against England, with eight centuries, and his highest Test score of 291 (386 balls) came in the win at The Oval in 1976.

All-rounder Botham was also a hard-hitting batter and a versatile wicket-taker who was a 1980s version of Ben Stokes. Botham’s second-best Test bowling figures were 8/103 against the West Indies at Lord’s in 1984. In the same match, Botham made his highest score against the West Indies (81 off 111 balls), who were then arguably the most feared bowling attack in the history of Test cricket.

Test form

Prior to their 2024 series, England lost four and won one of their previous five Test matches. They lost their last Test to India by 64 runs. The West Indies lost three, drew one and won one of their last five Tests. They won their last Test against Australia by just 8 runs.