West Indies and Pakistan will begin their 4-match T20 series in Barbados on Wednesday late morning. The two teams— who had initially planned a five-match T20 series — were forced into the alteration to the scheduled tour dates after West Indies’ current ODI series against Australia was rocked by a positive Covid-19 test.
A review of Pak vs Eng series
The inexperienced English lineup not only shock most of the experts, but they also outclassed the more experienced and well-balanced Pakistan team. The way the English team bowled and executed their plans against key Pakistani players was astonishing.
Mohammad Rizwan emerged as the highest scorer, with 176 runs overall, having an average of 88 and a strike rate of 138. Azam, again, impressed everyone averaging 39 for his 118 runs with a strike rate of 151.
Although Fakhar Zaman, Sohaib Maqsood, and Shadab Khan maintained good strike rates of 161, 162, and 140, they failed to score big runs. They ended the series making just 58, 47, 38 runs respectively.
Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy were the real stars as far as batting in that series is concerned. They made 147, 106 runs respectively but their strike rates of 216 and 200 made the difference. This shows the dominance of English batters over Pakistani bowling.
West Indies vs Pakistan: What to expect?
Although the Caribbean side is ranked eighth in the current ICC T20 rankings, their morale is high after defeating the fifth ranked Australians 4-1 just recently.
Part of the excitement around West Indies stems from the return of most of the key players that have, for one reason or another, been unavailable to them for the large parts of the previous decade.
With Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard all back in the maroon, West Indies are perhaps the most intimidating side on paper. On the other hand, relatively new Hayden Walsh, Sheldon Cottrell, and Obed McCoy are also bowling well.
West Indies are quite a capable and aggressive side, having some of the most explosive limited-overs cricket batsmen in their ranks. Pakistan has an uphill task of defeating the West Indies in their backyard.
As the T20 World Cup is fast approaching, we don’t have much margin to test our bench strength. We should stick to our best combination now and see how we perform.
