Keacy Carty took the stairs, not the elevator, but he's not complaining

While Shai Hope and John Campbell were standing up to India's attack in the Delhi Test earlier this week, Keacy Carty, another promising West Indies batter, was sweating it out against spin a few thousand kilometres away in Chennai, in the lead up to the ODI series in Bangladesh, which will kick off on October 18. Carty was left out of the Test side for the India tour, but is arguably the first batter on West Indies' team sheet in ODI cricket right now.

The 28-year-old has become a stable presence at No. 3 for West Indies in ODIs, thanks to his ability to construct and reconstruct innings. He can also bat at different tempos - as his strike rates, ranging from the sixties to 100-plus indicate - a rare skill among emerging batters from the Caribbean.

Since his ODI debut in May 2022, Carty has slotted in 23 times at No. 3, scoring 1110 runs at an average of 52.85 and strike rate of 85.97. Only Kane Williamson (62.47) and Virat Kohli (58.28) have a higher ODI average than Carty among No. 3 batters who have played at least 20 innings during this period.

So what makes Carty tick in this crucial position in ODIs?

"Before I got the opportunity to bat at No. 3 in back-to-back games, [coach Daren] Sammy basically told me that this is what's required from anyone that wants to bat in that particular position," Carty says on the sidelines of a training session at the Super Kings Academy in Chennai. "He brought up the stats and said, 'This is what the top three in the world is doing and this is what we are doing'.

"So we identified a few areas I could improve upon, two-three new skills. Just the willingness to want to do well at the position is what really drives me. I feel in 50-over cricket, you have a lot more time, so you don't have to be too helter-skelter. If you identify two-three areas where you can get a single, a two or a four, you're always going to have someone in the circle, so you can always capitalise."

Carty doesn't want to be left behind by the rapid evolution of the white-ball game. Conditions in the Caribbean, especially at his CPL home base in Trinidad, are often sluggish and unfavourable to playing in the "V" behind the wicket, but he sees his stint at the Super Kings Academy as an opportunity to hone the scoop shot, which could help him manipulate fields and open up new scoring zones in other parts of the world.

"The purpose of coming here to Chennai was obviously to improve the way we play spin and the way we think of playing spin," Carty says. "In the event that a team probably takes out the 45 [short fine leg] and puts him at short midwicket, I remember on one occasion I played it [the scoop] and they put him back. I wasn't really practising it in CPL that much because I don't think it would have been that useful. Hitting in front of the wicket is a better way to play in the Caribbean. Here, I've been working on a few things indoors, doing drills, and putting it to practice against the spin bowlers."

Carty's awareness of conditions and his own game came to the fore during his maiden ODI century, against England in a successful chase of 264, which tipped the series decider West Indies' way in Bridgetown in November 2024. On a slow surface, Carty knew he could simply play out Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid and line up Reece Topley and part-timer Liam Livingstone.

"It wasn't necessarily the quickest pitch," Carty recalls. "So by the time he [fast bowler Archer] finished his first spell and the first change came out with some spin... it was a night game too. I didn't think the ball was doing too much nor was the pitch assisting him too much. So on that day, it wasn't necessarily a big threat for me. I mean, on a different day, maybe a different ball game… But on that day, given all the circumstances, it wasn't really too threatening.

"Any opposition I'm coming up against, I always try to keep their main threat out of the game. I think that would put the team in a better position to do well. So I was a bit more cautious against him [legspinner Rashid]. But I really had the game plan of keeping him out of the game, to then force the other bowlers to be attacking who are probably not as good because we know [Rashid] has about 400 wickets [373 in white-ball cricket] for England.

"Learning the game and being interested in expanding your knowledge of the game is going to help you sharpen your skills. I don't think without attention to detail you can be that good of a player for a long period."

As part of Trinbago Knight Riders, the current CPL champions, Carty has also been feeding off inputs from his captain at the franchise, Nicholas Pooran, and his predecessor Kieron Pollard.

"To be honest, it's been a lot of knowledge and a lot of coaching at TKR," Carty says. "Pooran is a bit more lenient with me versus Pollard (laughs). That's just the nature of the individual. But when I'm with TKR, they do come down hard on me in a sense because I guess they feel like I can do well, so they would like to see me do well and do well fast. And it's not only me - it's to all younger players as well.

"Something as simple as - we may finish with practice at 8 o'clock at night, I see a message from Pollard and it's footage of me batting against spin now versus last year. He would ask me to tell him what I think. Obviously, he's played a lot of international cricket, a lot of domestic cricket around the world, and has had a lot of coaching from different territories, different conditions and he always shares that knowledge with us."

While Carty plays for Trinidad and Tobago in the CPL, he hails from St Maarten and became the first player from there to represent West Indies in international cricket, against Netherlands in May 2022 in Amstelveen. Funnily enough, Carty was also eligible to represent the opposition, since St Maarten is a constituent country of the kingdom of Netherlands, but his loyalty has always been with West Indies.

Daniel Doram, a tall left-arm fingerspinner from St Maarten, who now plays for Netherlands, is among Carty's good friends. They are team-mates at Leeward Islands, but Carty is looking forward to coming up against him in international cricket in the future.

"I remember when I went to bat, one of the players said, 'Guys, you can have this every day if you want'. I can vividly remember that," Carty says with a laugh. "Daniel and I are very good friends. He also plays for the same team [Leewards]. So we're basically the two younger generations that came up and are a part of the team.

"He's obviously playing for Holland now. Hopefully, if we ever play against each other, I can get the better of him (laughs). Yeah, I am eligible to play for the Netherlands, but that part is definitely far off."

Carty also credits older St Maarten players like Sherwin Peters and Colin Hamer for shaping his career.

"What they learned at the league level, they passed on that knowledge, so I was a few steps ahead of anyone my age," Carty says. "So it's basically like a brotherhood and you really don't like losing because of how they came up. That passion and willingness to win has always been a part of them. As a youngster being a part of it, it's going to naturally adapt to your demeanour. I've not necessarily been a part of a [world-title-] winning West Indies team, but we are improving and I do feel one day things are going to turn around."

Carty is a late bloomer in international cricket. In 2016, he steered West Indies to the Under-19 World Cup title in Bangladesh with an unbeaten half-century in the final against India, but he needed six more years to break into international cricket even as some of his age-group team-mates stepped up to the next level almost immediately after the World Cup.

Carty is happy, though, to have taken the stairs, and not the elevator, to the West Indies senior side.

"A few guys like Shimron [Hetmyer], Keemo Paul and Alzarri [Joseph] played international cricket shortly after U-19," Carty says. "I guess you can see why, based on their skillset. For me, it took a bit more time, which is okay. I just felt like I was a bit more... Like I knew my game a bit more."

He has now returned to Bangladesh as a bankable No. 3, well-prepared for whatever the hosts throw at him. While spin is always a factor in Bangladesh, he is also wary of their burgeoning pace stocks.

"I've played in Bangladesh [before] and also watched Test cricket there, where they prepare spin decks. So the work here in Chennai will come into play there," he says. "Hopefully it will be fruitful, but I'm keeping an open mind because they do have a pace attack that has been doing well for them - Tanzim [Hasan Sakib], Taskin [Ahmed] and the fast guy, [Nahid] Rana.

"They also do have quality spinners - Taijul, Nasum and the two Hasans. So it's going to be interesting to see what type of decks they prepare. But I'm keeping an open mind because I've been there twice and the pitches have been amazing."

West Indies missed out on qualifying for the last ODI World Cup, in 2023, and Carty dreams of taking them to the 2027 tournament. "Definitely you want to be a part of the World Cup," Carty says. "But I'm basically taking it series by series and just trying to get over every small hurdle that we have ahead of us so far."

He isn't part of the current Test squad or the T20I squad in Bangladesh, but has ambitions of becoming an all-format player for West Indies. Switching from one format to another in a short span has become a tightrope walk these days, but Carty is ready to walk it.

"I do want to get back into the Test team. I think where it gets tricky is balancing all three and being able to adapt. Playing Tests today and in three days' time you're playing a T20 or an ODI… I feel that's going to be more difficult. But I do want to be an all-format player for West Indies."