Bangladesh, West Indies first ODI Today

FT ONLINE

Bangladesh will play host West Indies in the 1st ODI of the three-match series at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday.

The match will begin at 7:30 pm [Bangladesh time] with Tigers hoping to a improve results in their favourite format while Windies will look to maintain the most of the momentum gained from their 2-0 Test series win.

Bangladesh will need a fresh start, leaving behind the nightmare of Test series loss, having their recent impressive form in ODIs along-with skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in the side as a significant booster.

Bangladesh players warmed-up them well for the ODIs with a comfortable four-wicket victory against UWI Vice-Chancellor’s XI in Kingston on Thursday.

Bangladesh chased a target of 228 runs, scoring 230/6 off 43.3 overs after the UWI VC's XI mustered 227 for 9 in 50 overs where former captain Mushfiqur Rahim (75*) and top-order batsman Liton Kumar Das (70) contributed significantly with a 52-run sixth wicket stand.

Liton hit six fours and two sixes in his 79-ball knock, while Mushfiqur played 70 balls for unbeaten innings with six fours and one six.

The performance saw them gaining some confidence ahead of the 1st of three ODIs against the host country starting in Guyana on Sunday.

Experienced all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad will need to bring all their experience into the match, while Mashrafe will look to fill new energy after joining the team along with Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain to be his strongest suit for the pace attack.

The host side will want to put up a much better display than they did in the Test series with their formidable outfit, having an enriched set of pacers -- Alzarri Joseph and Keemo Paul, comeback man Andre Russell and skipper Jason Holder who likely create plenty of problems for Bangladesh.

The hard-hitting all-rounder Andre Russell, who has the ability to change the game, last played an ODI back in November 2015.

However, the Providence Stadium has, in general, is not a happy hunting ground for the Windies as they won just six of their 13 ODIs here. The surface is expected to be slightly slow and will aid turn. There are also chances of a shower during the day.

Bangladesh last played an ODI in the Tri-Nation Series against Sri Lanka at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka and lost the game by 79 runs.

The Windies last played an ODI at the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018 in March in Zimbabwe, where they finished as runners-up and booked a place at the main event in 2019.

Bangladesh registered seven wins against West Indies in their 28 ODI meetings--two of them had seen no results--since May 1999.

Squads:

Bangladesh squad: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Nazmul Haque, Liton Kumar Das, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Hossain, Abu Hider, Abu Javed, Mehidy Hasan and Nazmul Islam.

West Indies squad: Jason Holder (captain), Devendra Bishoo, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell and Andre Russell.