Evin Lewis returns to red‑ball

Evin Lewis is back in first-class cricket, opening for Trinidad and Tobago Red Force on April 12 after a nine-year absence from the format. (windiescricket.com) At stumps on the opening day against Leeward Islands Hurricanes in Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago were 62 without loss in reply to 138 all out, with Lewis unbeaten on 28 and Cephas Cooper unbeaten on 22. (windiescricket.com, caribbeancricket.com) Lewis last played a first-class match in March 2017 for Trinidad and Tobago, according to ESPNcricinfo’s match record, and he was named in the Red Force squad for the 2026 regional season that began April 12. (espncricinfo.com, 103fm.tt) The return follows a sharp turn in his career over the past two months. Wisden reported in February that Lewis appeared to signal an international retirement after missing West Indies’ Twenty20 World Cup squad, then reported on March 27 that he had reversed that decision and was pursuing a red-ball comeback. (wisden.com, wisden.com) Lewis said before the season that he was available for Test selection and had “always thought about playing Test cricket,” according to CaribbeanCricket.com’s report from the National Cricket Center unveiling in Couva. (caribbeancricket.com) That ambition gives extra weight to this match because first-class cricket is the four-day domestic format selectors use to judge players for Test cricket, the game’s longest version. The 2026 West Indies Championship runs from April 12 into May, with Trinidad and Tobago opening in a three-match series against Leeward Islands. (windiescricket.com, criczop.com) Lewis is 34 and built his reputation as a white-ball opener for West Indies, with 70 One Day Internationals and 67 Twenty20 Internationals listed by ESPNcricinfo. His first-class record before this comeback stood at 1,229 runs in 22 matches at an average of 30.72, with one century. (espncricinfo.com, wisden.com) His strongest first-class season came in 2015-16, when he scored 442 runs at 49.11, including a century against Jamaica, before stepping away from the format after the 2016-17 campaign. (wisden.com) The clips that spread on X landed because they showed more than a cameo: they showed Lewis back in whites, batting time again, and putting himself back into a selection conversation he had publicly reopened only weeks earlier. (x.com, caribbeancricket.com)