 The first ODI between West Indies and Zimbabwe will be played at
Providence at Guyana. The two teams had played a T20I before this and the tourists
had trounced the West Indian side in a very low-scoring game.
For West Indies, the biggest piece of news would be the return of Chris Gayle.
Let's face it, Denesh Ramdin is not captaincy material and the West Indian
side can do better than to appoint him as a captain. Gayle's return will not
only bolster the captaincy, but also the batting at the start of the order.
Click Here to Watch West Indies vs Zimbabwe LiveHowever, the defeat in the first T20I will obviously hurt. They were, after
all, chasing only 106 for a win, and in a twenty over game, is said to be a
cakewalk. However, with the Zimbabwean spinners exploiting the conditions to
the fullest, it remains to be seen whether the West Indian side brings about
any changes to their batting line-up. They have yet to name their squad, but
it is a given that they need batsmen who can bat through the innings, something
that they lacked on the Aussie tour as well.
What the selectors will do with the line-up remains to be seen, but one thing
is for sure, and that is they have to get their spinners back into reckoning
and into the playing eleven. Suliemann Benn and Nikita Miller, both,
can play in the game, and along with the slow bowling of Gayle, can look to
exploit the fact that the opposition side will find the conditions very difficult
to bat against.
Talking about the Zimbabwean side, they have the same set of 15 who were there
for the T20Is and the final 11 for the ODIs will be selected from the same set.
The Zimbabweans went into the first T20I with a strange tactic of playing all
spinners, and there were eight bowlers who bowled for them, and bowled slow
bowlers only! 18 out of the 20 overs were spin, and by the time the fast bowlers
were called upon, the match was over.
Ray Price and Prosper Utseya would be obvious choices to share the bulk of
the spinning options, but as shown by Graeme Cremer, even he could provide
with a good option to do both, bat and bowl.
Charles Coventry and Tatenda Taibu did not bat too well in the T20I,
probably due to the kind of pitch that there was on offer. But the West Indian
bowlers will need to beware of a backlash from the pair and try to get them
out early in the game.
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