 West Indies will play Bangladesh in the first test of the two test match
series that starts from Thursday this week. The game will be played at Kingston
in Jamaica, the hosts go into it as favourites, after having beaten England in
a home series and with Bangladesh going through some stiff times in the recent
past with the sacking of their skipper Mohammad Ashraful and getting in
Mashrafe Mortaza as the captain.
West Indies had gone into their last series with Devon Smith as the
opener to partner Chris Gayle, but had come undone in the away series
against England. It will be interesting to see whether the West Indian selectors
want to continue with Smith, or try and get in the more successful - in the
ODIs - Runako Morton in the playing eleven to partner Gayle.
The middle order should remain largely untouched, with the likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul making it to the number three
and four, but it will be difficult to see Dwayne Bravo not making it to the
middle-order; unlike the England series where Bravo hadn't found a place.
The West Indian bowling is in a bit of strife though, with Jerome Taylor going through a really bad patch of form, while Fidel Edwards has
been out due to injury. It is highly unlikely that in the absence of Edwards,
Taylor will be dropped from the playing eleven, given the lack of experience
that the rest of the bowlers have. The inclusion of Bravo will obviously add
more support to the West Indian line-up, making it easier for the hosts.
Bangladesh, as was mentioned earlier will be under a new captain, Mashrafe
Mortaza. And they will hope that under this new leader, they are able to overturn
their bad run in test matches. Bangladesh has yet to beat a top notch team in
test matches, and that will play in the minds of most of them. Having said that,
Mortaza will also know that anything but a huge crushing loss will be a step
in the right direction as Bangladesh haven't even come close to drawing a game
apart from a closely fought one against the Kiwis.
Ashraful's half century in the tour game will do him no harm, as will the 72
scored by Tamim Iqbal in the same match. What will be worrying, however, is
that none of the rest managed to get a good enough score, getting out after
getting a start to a very inexperienced bowling line-up.
The bowling looks much better in the hands of Mortaza and Shahdahat Hossain
as the quick bowlers, and Shakib-al-Hasan and Mahmudullah as the tweakers. The
bowler to look out for will be Rubel Hossain, who is not only quick but also
bowls a decent line and length.
However, West Indies looks definite favourites to win this game, and the series
as well.
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