(Cricket news) West Indies and England kick off their T20 World cup campaign on Saturday at the Dubai International Stadium. The match will be a replay of the 2016 T20 World Cup final which West Indies won.
England lost their 1st warm-up game against India by 7 wickets but came back to win their 2nd game against New Zealand by 13 runs. The defending champions on the other hand suffered heavy defeats in both their warm-up games. Against Pakistan they lost by 7 wickets and 27 balls to spare and against Afghanistan by 57.
England squad:
Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
The big concern in England camp will be Eoin Morgan's form with the willow. The skipper contributed almost nothing as a batter although he did lead the team well as a captain. Moeen Ali, who just won the IPL with CSK has been in good form while Jason Roy also got some runs in the last few games that he played for SRH. Other than these three no other player has played much cricket but they are the no.1 team in the world which makes them heavy favourites.
Also read: Australia vs South Africa set to kick off the T-20 World Cup Super 12 in Abu Dhabi
West Indies squad:
Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh jnr.
Despite his impressive performances in the IPL, Sunil Narine doesn't find a place in the squad because of fitness issues. The West Indies side usually bats very deep sometimes till no. 10 which is a huge advantage. Chris Gayle's form has been heavily discussed and is a bit of concern for West Indies. Dwayne Bravo and Shimron Hetmyer will be the two key players for the Windies as both of them have had a very good IPL.
The average first innings score at the Dubai International Stadium is 144 while it drops down to 122 in the 2nd innings. The dew will also be a very big factor, maybe even more than the wicket itself. West Indies' performance in the warm-ups shouldn't be too big of a concern as they have a lot of fire power in their side. England on the other hand are the no. 1 side in the world and would like to start that way.
