John Campbell

John Campbell is a professional West Indian cricketer, born on 21 September 1993 in Kingston, Jamaica. He is a left-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-break bowler. He shared a 365-run opening partnership with Shai Hope which is the highest partnership for the first wicket.

Background

An 18-year-old John played the U19 World Cup for West Indies in 2012. He left his mark in the match for fifth place against England when he got his maiden century in the tournament. He impressed the domestic selectors and earned himself a place in the domestic T20 tournament organized by the West Indies Cricket Board. He made his debut for Jamaica in the 2012-13 Caribbean Twenty20.

He earned his call-up in the First Class and List A sides for Jamaica in the following year. Since then, Campbell has become a mainstay in the side. He notched up his maiden First Class hundred in his debut season for Jamaica. A couple of years later, he started enjoying his success with the ball too. Due to his consistent performances at the domestic level, he earned his place in the senior team at the international level.

Debut

He made his debut in all three formats at the international level in a span of two months in 2019. The 25-year-old made his Test debut for West Indies on 23 January 2019 against England at Bridgetown. West Indies were always had an upper hand on the game as they dismantled the England batting line-up for just 77 after scoring 289 in their first innings. The hosts piled up 415 runs in the second innings and set a target of 628. They won the game by 381 runs as Campbell returned with scores of 44 and 33.

He made his ODI debut just a few days later, against the same opposition, at the same venue. On 20 February 2019, the hosts put 360/8 on the board. Campbell got a good start but Woakes got the better of him when he was on 30 off 28 balls. The English side were on a winning streak in ODIs at the time and chased down the mammoth total 6 wickets and 8 balls in hand.

In the T20I leg of the series, Campbell made his debut on a rather unfortunate day as the hosts were skittled out for just 71. The debutant scored 11. It is obvious that England won the game. They did so with 8 wickets in hand and 57 balls to spare.

Rise to Glory

Campbell shot to fame in the record-breaking ODI against Ireland in May 2019. Coming out to bat first, John (179) and Hope (170) started with the typical West Indian flair and scored 365 by the time the first wicket fell. The Irish fielders were sent on a leather-hunt for 47.5 overs. Campbell and Hope recorded the highest partnership in ODI for the first wicket and fell just seven runs short of the highest partnership for any wicket. They also became just the second pair of openers to score more than 150 in the same ODI innings.