West Indies take on Bangladesh in the first One Day match of the three-match series to be held on August 20.
The two teams are ranked 8th and 9th respectively in the world One Day rankings and in the seven ODIs played in West Indies; the home team has won four with the visitors winning the others. If statistics are anything to go by, the fans are in for another closely-fought series.
The West Indies players were all part of the Caribbean Premier League, which ended on 16th August. Having played competitive cricket for close to a month, the team will be confident of being in good shape to start the tournament with a win.
There might also be a tad of tiredness in the players and that is exactly what the Bangladesh team will hope to exploit.
In terms of firepower, the West Indies squad is second to none in the world. Led by all rounder Dwayne Bravo, who has made a habit of shining with the bat and the ball whenever the team requires, the team has turned in some fine performances in recent times.
A team with Chris Gayle at the top of the order is always considered dangerous and Bangladesh too will have to figure out a way to keep him quite.
Apart from these two players, the team has leading scorer and leading wicket taker of the CPLT20 in Lendl Simmons and Ravi Rampaul respectively. Darren Sammy, Keiron Pollard and mystery spinner Sunil Narine are the other players that the team will rely on in the series.
For Bangladesh, the year 2014 has been filled with some very underwhelming performances, including the Asia Cup where the team failed to win a single match. They go to the Caribbean looking to improve the performances. Captain Mushfiqur Rahim will be crucial to the team’s fortunes both as the leader and the best batsman.
Experienced campaigners Mashrafe Mortaza and Abdur Razzak will be expected to contribute heavily to the cause of the team. Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque and Rubel Hossain will be expected to provide support for these players in neutralizing the threat carried by the West Indians.
Both teams will look to win the match first match of the series to build some momentum going into what will be a fairly long tour.