West Indies to face confident Pakistan in the lone Twenty20 match of the series
The fever of Twenty20 cricket will be carried to the Caribbean, as Pakistan and West Indies go head to head on Thursday, April 21, for a lone Twenty20 match of the bilateral series, at the Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760. They will later feature
in five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Test matches in the series.
The last time both teams met was in the 2011 ICC World Cup, but the Windies wouldn't want to remember that match. They lost the encounter by 10 wickets, as their batsmen were unable to post a challenging target for the Men-in-Green.
However, the situation will be entirely different now, as West Indies will be the hosts of the series. They have always proved to be a difficult opposition when it comes to playing on home soil.
On the other hand, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 will be confident of performing well in the series. They have been terrific in the shortest version of the game and have always qualified for the top-four of the Twenty20 World Cups.
The visitors were victorious in a 50-over tour match against University of West Indies Vice Chancellor’s 11 by a comfortable margin of 68. They also managed to qualify for the semi-final of the World Cup, which would have lifted their team spirit.
Pakistan haven’t made much changes to their squad, which they chose for the Mega Event. Wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdul-Razzaq-c889 were dropped from the side, following their poor run of form in the recent past.
The 29-year-old keeper was mainly in the team for his batting skills, but he failed to score runs with consistency. This led to his exclusion from the team ahead of the Caribbean tour. Consistency was also a problem for Razzaq and the selection committee
dropped the veteran.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 will also not be a part of the team in West Indies as both senior members were rested to give a chance to some youngsters.
However, the absence of the above players will not affect the performance of the Men-in-Green by much. They have some prolific young players like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Umar-Akmal-c2720, who have the ability to do well in any form of cricket. The team
will also have the experience of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482.
Fast bowling has always been Pakistan's strength, but the team will rely on their spinners this time around. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saeed-Ajmal-c2404, Hafeez and Afridi are all good spinners and will look forward to make most of the slow pitches in the Caribbean Islands.
The home team will be led by all-rounder Darren Sammy, who was the skipper in the World Cup as well. He will not have the services of veteran players Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shivnarine-Chanderpaul-c90073 for the series. He will be eyeing some good performances
from youngsters Darren Bravo, Lendl Simmons, Devendra Bishoo and Andre Russell.
Marlon Samuels will return to the squad after completing his two-year ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC), following links with book-makers. He will be eager to make an impression straight away and cement his place in the squad as a permanent
member.
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