Patience pays off: Amir Jangoo's decade-long wait ends with India dream tour
Amir Jangoo had it all planned in his head. As a teenager playing for Trinidad & Tobago's U17s and U19s, he hoped to be wearing a West Indies kit by the age of 25. It didn't quite work out as planned. But at 29, on his first India tour, the dream has finally arrived — and the patient left-hander is making up for lost time in a hurry.
A dream deferred, never abandoned
Had cricket not worked out, Jangoo might have been teaching geography — he holds a degree in the subject. But giving up was never an option. Reflecting on the years between his age-group cricket and the international stage, he told Cricbuzz on the sidelines of the ODI series:
"There was a bit of a struggle between those ages. But then when I crossed 25, I just told myself, 'You know what, just enjoy the game. Just be grateful that you're getting to play for your country, playing first-class cricket.'"
By the time he finally broke into the West Indies setup in 2024, Jangoo had mentally rewired himself. He watched younger players come through and make the team, and the feeling was a familiar one:
"And then, I would think to myself, 'You know what, I think I'm better than these guys. I think I could do better than these guys. I think my ability is better, it's just I didn't have the performances in.'"
Making up for lost time
Once the maroon kit was on, Jangoo did not wait. Batting at six on ODI debut, he carved out a century off just 79 balls. In June, he struck a Test double in a world-record partnership — his third first-class century, all of them converted to doubles. A month earlier, his runs had shaped Trinidad & Tobago's first-class title, ending a two-decade drought. Then, in September, he was joyfully posing with the CPL trophy in Barbados after a final-winning fifty. Three days later, he touched down in India.
For a decade he sat on the waitlist; now life is coming at Jangoo fast. And he's not about to complain:
"I always wanted to play cricket in India, against the greats like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, even Shubman Gill. Playing against these guys, it's a dream come true."
From gully cricket to Queen's Park
Jangoo's love for cricket began watching his father play in Trinidad. Both his parents worked in a bank, while his elder sister practices law. After enrolling at Queen's Park Cricket Club, he followed the conventional path into an unconventional occupation — age-group cricket, U19s, and then professional cricket. But the road further up was steep: "From there, it took nine years to get into the international team."
Idols: a lineup of lefties — and one exception
As a left-hander growing up in T&T, Jangoo's first idol was unsurprisingly Brian Lara. His eyes light up when asked about a 2019 exhibition match on his home ground when he kitted up alongside Lara. His batting fluidity borrows fragments from his other heroes: the aerial square cut in Trivandrum carried a touch of Kumar Sangakkara from the 2000s, while the whipped six off the same bowler is what Quinton de Kock excels at. Breaking that lineup of lefties is Virat Kohli.
"I think not only just him (Kohli) as a player, but just his work ethic and the stuff that he's said in interviews, the way how he lives his life and stuff. That is something that I really look up to."
In Trivandrum, Jangoo got the bittersweet treat of watching Kohli in rollicking flow. Before that, he mended a West Indies innings hurt by Kuldeep Yadav's tricks, attacking the soft, old ball to secure vital runs at the death.
Adaptability as a superpower
Batting at five is a new role for him in internationals, different to his top-order duties in the CPL weeks earlier. "They know that I can do a job in the middle. So, for me, it's all about understanding the game scenario." Through years of rigour, Jangoo has never been averse to role changes. Pre-Covid he played for Windward Islands at Nos. 4 and 5. When cricket resumed in the region, he earned a wicketkeeper's spot with Trinidad in Joshua da Silva's absence — a lower batting position that honed his game against spin.
2020 was also his first taste of T20s. Just half a decade later, he had made the T20I side, reconfiguring his natural style to become an all-format player. Staying close to Queen's Park allowed him to spend "countless days and nights doing plenty of range-hitting."
"I've been playing the CPL maybe seven years, but I wasn't really much of a T20 player. For me, it was understanding, 'OK, well, I want to play all three formats. I know I'm a good enough batsman to do it.'"
He developed faster hands for the T20 game, learning to use the pace of the bowlers rather than sheer power.
"Obviously, I'm not one of the stronger guys to clear the ropes at will. For me, it's more about using the pace of the bowlers. And when I do work on my power shots, I just try to execute them as best as I can."
World Cup dreams and the ODI cause
Jangoo won't play the India T20Is, but his bigger dreams aren't confined by formats:
"I want to play and actually lift the World Cup for West Indies. That's the No.1 aim. No matter the format, whether it's a World Test Championship, whether it's a 50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup. I want to play for the West Indies and for as long as possible until I retire."
He looks no further than his ODI captain for a template: "I just want to be someone like Shai Hope, who is such a great force in 50-over cricket. I want to dominate Test cricket and 50-over cricket for sure for the West Indies."
It's a rare partiality for a format hurtling through an identity crisis in the age of quick T20 gigs. Yet Jangoo trusts its future, and believes the team is making strides — even after West Indies missed automatic qualification for the World Cup and now face the Qualifiers.
"Even in the series, you will see better performances from the guys and that'll give us good confidence going into the Qualifiers. Going forward, we build on this, build on the Qualifiers, most likely we should qualify and then go to the World Cup, putting some good performances in and anything can happen from there. We want to compete with the Indias, with the South Africas, with Australias in the world."
Franchise cricket can wait
Aside from the CPL, Jangoo hasn't played in any other franchise league yet. He calls the IPL "the pinnacle of T20 cricket" and follows RCB; someday, he would love to bat alongside Virat Kohli or Quinton de Kock for a franchise team. But for now, the focus is firmly on West Indies cricket.
"I want to dominate international cricket. I want to know that every time we have an international series, I'm one of the main guys, I'm the one that's doing well. And I think from there, leagues take care of themselves after that."
Away from the sport, he retreats to his house to relax with family. The years of struggle taught him the value of patience — and now, at last, it's paying off.