John Campbell was flat on the floor after 13 overs of West Indies' innings in Guwahati, a towel covering his head while members of the support staff brought out fluids. The umpires had called drinks early. Weather apps were warning of excessive heat and showing a "real feel" of 44 degrees Celsius.
Campbell had spent 51 balls batting in it. He had already raced to 83 runs and needed a breather.
He would spend only another 17 balls at the crease. By the time he was done, Campbell had made 101 from 68, his second ODI hundred and his first in more than seven years. The innings lasted only 18.1 overs of West Indies' day, but Campbell packed plenty into that time: a record fifty against India, the fifth-fastest ODI hundred by a West Indies batter, and the foundations of their first 400-plus total.
His start had given little indication of what was coming. Prasidh Krishna and debutant Auqib Nabi found movement with the new ball, and after 15 deliveries Campbell had 10. There were plenty of empty seats around him too. Shubman Gill had opted to bowl first and spectators were still filtering into the ground, seemingly in little hurry to spend any longer than necessary under the afternoon sun.
Then Campbell took 22 from a Prasidh over, showing the range that would define the innings. A full ball disappeared over extra cover, another was whipped through midwicket, and when Prasidh shortened his length, Campbell opened the face to find the boundary behind point before pulling him for four. Soon after, Campbell reached fifty from 29 balls, the fastest by a West Indies batter against India in men's ODIs, beating the 30-ball efforts of Chris Gayle in 2002 and 2019, and Viv Richards' 31-ball fifty in 1983.
Gayle's name would come up again when Campbell stayed tall to a 140kph delivery from Gurnoor Brar and sent it over cow corner, prompting Sunil Gavaskar on commentary to draw comparisons with the former West Indies opener. There was something fitting about it. Campbell grew up in Jamaica admiring Gayle, another left-hander capable of generating considerable violence from an uncomplicated swing of the bat.
Campbell had 69 from 39 balls by the end of the first ten overs. India turned to spin, but the pace of his innings barely relented. By the time the heat forced the early drinks break after 13 overs, he had 83 from 51. When he got back up, he needed another 12 deliveries to reach three figures.
The hundred came in the 18th over, Campbell driving Kuldeep Yadav to long-on and running through for the single. It had taken 65 balls, the fifth-fastest ODI hundred by a West Indies batter and the fastest against India, past Richards' 72-ball effort in 1983.
Campbell reached the other end and removed his cap. For most of the afternoon his bat had done the talking, and now he gave it one more job. He swung it through the air in a full arc, the bat providing the roar while Campbell remained wordless, then pointed it towards the West Indies dugout. Shai Hope walked across and wrapped him in a hug.
Five balls later Campbell was walking back for 101 from 68. His innings had occupied barely a third of West Indies' allocation, but its effect stretched through the rest of it. Hope and Amir Jangoo made hundreds of their own as West Indies went past 400, with three centurions in the same innings for only the sixth time in ODI cricket.
For Campbell, though, there was another measurement of time attached to the hundred. His first had come in Dublin in May 2019, when he smashed 179 against Ireland in just his fifth ODI and shared a 365-run opening stand with Hope. It looked like the beginning of something. Instead, Campbell did not play another ODI for six-and-a-half years.
His international career became centred largely around Test cricket before being interrupted altogether in 2022. An independent anti-doping panel handed Campbell a four-year suspension for evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection. On appeal, the sanction was reduced to 22 months.
Campbell has since spoken about trying to remain a professional cricketer while he waited: training where he could with his access to formal cricket facilities restricted, leaning on encouragement from his mother, eventually finding facilities in the USA and playing Minor League Cricket as he worked towards returning.
The suspension ended. The ODI recall still did not come immediately. Campbell was 32 when West Indies finally brought him back to the format against New Zealand in November 2025, more than six years after the 179 that had seemed to announce him.
Now he is 33. He will be 34 by the time the 2027 ODI World Cup begins, if West Indies get there at all. There is urgency on both sides: West Indies still have to find their way to the tournament, while Campbell has returned to ODI cricket at a stage of his career when opportunities cannot be assumed to stretch indefinitely ahead.
That is what made the contrast in Guwahati so stark. Campbell had spent years waiting: for a suspension to end, for his international career to resume, and eventually for another big innings since that knock in Dublin so many years back. On Tuesday, 18.1 overs were enough to somewhat make up for some of that lost time.