Windies aim to end painful losing streak

The regional side will be hoping the exclusion of batting talisman Brian Lara for the one-day home series will not affect their chances of success against the Pakistanis buoyed by a successful ODI campaign against India, in which they came back from being two games down, to win the series 4-2.

Lara has been rested for the series, with opener Wavell Hinds taking his place for the opening match today. Fast bowler Pedro Collins also returns to the 13-man squad in place of his brother Fidel Edwards.

Pakistan may include Shabbir Khan who took two wickets in a warm-up having just recovered from knee surgery. West Indies convenor of selectors Michael ‘Joey’ Carew hoped his side could reverse their recent one-day fortunes.

The side lost the final one-day match of the series against South Africa on Sunday and by doing so, suffered their first 5-0 whitewash at home. They are now looking for better things against the touring Pakistanis.

"We have to put the last series behind us and take what we learnt from it into the matches against Pakistan," Carew said. "I look forward to some measure of success in this series."

Pakistan manager Salim Altaf said the West Indies were still a force to be reckoned with despite the recent one-day thrashing. "The West Indies are an unpredictable side," said Altaf.

"Just to say they have been beaten by South Africa, quite frankly that doesn’t mean anything to us. Each one-day international has to be played as a separate entity. We are fully aware of their capabilities."

TEAMS:

West Indies (from): Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Corey Collymore, Pedro Collins, Chris Gayle, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton, Daren Powell, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Smith, Ryan Hinds.

Pakistan (from): Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younus Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Arshad, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Nazir, Salman Butt, Yousaf Youhana, Shoaib Malik, Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan, Shabbir Khan, Yasir Qureshi, Danish Kaneria, Asim Kamal, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Bazid Khan.