West Indies have completed a calendar year without losing a Test series for the first time since 1994. The milestone was sealed by a 1-0 series win over Bangladesh, prompting praise from Cricket West Indies president Dr Kishore Shallow, who called it a "tremendous achievement".

The Caribbean side drew their home series against Pakistan, beat Sri Lanka at home, and then won away in Bangladesh — two series wins and a draw from three assignments in 2026. It is the first time in 32 years that West Indies have gone through a whole calendar year unbeaten in Test series.

How the Bangladesh series was won

West Indies won the first Test by eight wickets and then drew the second Test in Sylhet on Monday, 9 November, to take the two-match series 1-0. Bangladesh finished on 184 for four chasing 369 in the final match, after West Indies had declared on 398 for six.

The result also made West Indies the first team in the current World Test Championship cycle to complete their full allotment of fixtures. They finished the cycle in eighth place in the World Test Championship standings, but have climbed two places to sixth in the ICC Test rankings.

Shallow hails character and unity

Shallow congratulated the players, coaches and support staff on what he described as an outstanding year of Test cricket. "To go through an entire calendar year without losing a Test series, and to cap it off with a series victory in challenging subcontinental conditions, is a tremendous achievement," he said.

"It reflects the character, discipline, and unity of this group and should be a source of inspiration for West Indians everywhere," Shallow added. "This is an important step forward for West Indies cricket and one we should rightly celebrate. At the same time, we must remain focused, ambitious and determined to build on this success and achieve even more in the years ahead."

Chase: We are going in the right direction

Captain Roston Chase said the team had targeted exactly this kind of year after a difficult start to the World Test Championship cycle, in which they went eight matches without a win, losing seven of them.

"We did not lose a series (this year). This is something that has not been done for a number of years," Chase said after the Bangladesh series win. "We won two out of three, so I thought that it was a good year."

Chase added that the side had spoken about dominating the second year of the cycle, playing against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — and had delivered on that plan.

What comes next

The unbeaten year does not erase the struggles that came before it, and West Indies remain a side rebuilding in the longest format. But finishing a calendar year without a series defeat, for the first time since the great sides of the early 1990s, is a genuine marker of progress.

Chase is already looking ahead to the next World Test Championship cycle, which runs from 2027 to 2029, and believes the group can achieve more if it keeps building on this foundation. For a team that has spent much of the past three decades searching for consistency in Test cricket, 2026 offered something it had not managed in 32 years: a year without losing a series.

Sources: CANA News and New Kerala.