Confident Windies face Pakistan

The West Indies defeated Pakistan by seven runs in their sole Twenty20 match on Thursday at the same venue with a new-look squad and would be confident about continuing their good form.

Opening batsman Lendl Simmons struck 65 runs off 44 balls on his return to the team and Darren Bravo smashed 42 runs off 33 balls, and are expected to lead the batting once again.

Opening batsmen Devon Smith is expected to start for the West Indies at the expense of Andre Fletcher who scored one in the Twenty20 match. Smith had decent performances at the recently concluded ICC Cricket World Cup and will add experience to a young team which is without Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. The trio were not selected for the first two One-Day International matches against Pakistan since the West Indies Cricket Board expressed their desire to build a team for the next World Cup around a core of younger players.

Pacer Kemar Roach is expected to play his first match in the series and share the new ball with Ravi Rampaul. Leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo will be the West Indies strike bowler against Pakistan. He took four wickets for 14 runs to be named ‘Man-of-the-Match’ in the Twenty20 match against Pakistan.

Batsman Marlon Samuels is expected to give a better account of himself after struggling in the shortest format of the game. Samuel who returns to international cricket after a two-year ban was the leading scorer in the WICB Four-Day tournament, amassing 853 runs at an average of 65.61.

Pakistan will pose a much more difficult prospect in 50-over format with attacking batsman Umar Akmal and experienced Misbah-ul-Haq expected to play a prominent role.

The visitors were knocked out in the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup by eventual champions India and are also looking to build a team for the future. They have not selected Umar Gul, Abdul Razzaq, Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan from their team.

Skipper Shahid Afridi will pose a major threat with his explosive batting and tricky leg-spin.

West Indies: Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Kirk Edwards, Dwayne Bravo, Carlton Baugh (wk), Darren Sammy (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul

Pakistan: Taufeeq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Hammad Azam, Mohammad Salman (wk), Shahid Afridi (capt), Wahab Riaz, Tanvir Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal.