West Indies Team News
There’s no need to explain everything that’s gone wrong with the Windies so far because in this article, I’ve done just that.
Have a read and maybe you’ll agree with my assessment regarding team tactics, how they picked the wrong players and what they need to do to have any chance of still making the semis.
Speaking of which, to make the semis they’ll need to win every single game from here, probably have to drastically improve their net run rate and also hope other results go their way.
Far from straightforward, that’s for sure. But what is worth discussing here are the changes they need to make.
They need to drop Lendl Simmons, who was more responsible than anyone for that loss to South Africa after his appalling and painstakingly slow innings. He didn’t hit a boundary in 35 balls.
Andre Fletcher needs to come in for him. And they need to drop either Nicholas Pooran or Shimron Hetmyer for Roston Chase.
Pooran is also the wicket-keeper but that’s no problem because so is Fletcher and he could take over the gloves.
West Indies Likely XI
Lewis, Fletcher, Gayle, Chase, Pooran, Pollard, Russell, Bravo, McCoy, Hossein, Rampaul.
Bangladesh Team News
Two games, two losses. In truth, it was pretty much game over against England as soon as they lost the toss and were forced to bat.
That Mushfiqur Rahim (for the second game running) top scored with just 29 tells its own story. He was the only batter who seemed comfortable with the wicket at any stage and even then his strike rate was just 96.66.
And for the second game running Shakib Al-Hasan didn’t come to the party with the bat. On the one hand it’s a bit much to expect him to shine every time he plays.
On the other hand, when you’re lacking star players, you really do need the ones you have to be at their best. Nasum Ahmed was the best of a bad bunch with 19 off 9 balls with the bat and the wicket of Jos Buttler.
Soumya Sarkar and Rubel Hossein might get a game. They have little to lose by letting them improve the team’s fortunes.
Bangladesh Likely XI
Das, Naim, Shakib, Rahim, Mahmudullah, Hossain, Hasan, Ahmed, Rahman.
Venue & conditions
There have been two high scoring encounters here at Sharjah so far. There was the 171 posted by Bangladesh themselves, chased by Sri Lanka, and there was the mammoth 190 posted by Afghanistan. Not chased by Scotland.
Then again, that was against a weak bowling attack. And then on Tuesday we had New Zealand crawl to 134 and Pakistan having a wobble in chasing it but getting there in the end.
So good luck figuring out what a par score is. What’s easier to work out is that chasing is the way to go here. But then again, chasing is the way to go on all these UAE wickets.
Here’s our guide to Sharjah if you want to know more about it.
