Windies fresh off a 1-1 series draw against Sri Lanka last week, will now battle Bangladesh in the first of two Test matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua this morning from 10 am.
The local team although ranked one below eight-placed Bangladesh will start as favourites given the fact that they are playing at home and their bowling unit is at top form as was displayed in the previous Test series.
The Windies bowlers almost gave the Caribbean side series victory over Sri Lanka, but the visitors battled well to win by four wickets at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Bangladesh will have Shannon Gabriel to contend with and this will not be easy. He creamed off 20 batsmen at an average just 14. 95 against Sri Lanka and was consistently bowling in the 90 km range.
Also in top form is skipper Jason Holder who scored a half-century and took nine wickets in the final Test. The Windies are likely to go into the match with an unchanged team from the last match against Sri Lanka, however, their batsmen will be looking to display improve performances.
Shane Dowrich was the pick of the home team batsmen in the last series and won the man of the series award. He will need support and that should come in the form of Shai Hope and Keiran Powell.
Devon Smith and Roston Chase performed under-par in the last series and they will be fighting to keep out the exuberant Guyana Shimron Hetmeyer who scored a century against Bangladesh in the lone warm up game.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, will depend heavily on skipper Shakib Al Hasan to lead from the front. Al Hasan has experience playing in the Caribbean having played Tests here previously, as well as a being a regular campaigner in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL).
The visitors will be hoping that opener Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah gave them big scores as most of the others are inexperienced in Caribbean conditions. The Bangladeshis shortcomings against genuinely fast bowling may well be exposed in this series and they will hope that Liton Das, who is well equipped to face the faster stuff come to the party.
The pitch at the Sir Viv ground is not as quick as the three that were used in the Sri Lankan series and this venue has been known like the man it’s named after, for churning out runs in large numbers. In the last five Test matches at this venue, teams batting first have averaged 450 runs and this tells a tale.
The Windies have shown a liking for batting first so the toss will be crucial in this match. They will not want to bat last on the strip with the likes of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam turning the ball.
Teams
Windies: Kraigg Brathwaite, Devon Smith, Kieran Powell, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich (wk), Jason Holder (capt), Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Miguel Cummins, Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmeyer, Keemo Paul.
Bangladesh: Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Litton Das (wk), Mahmudullah, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Abu Jayed.
Clik here to view.
