A woeful start to their World T20 title defence has seen the West Indies on the cusp of elimination should they not drastically swing their fortunes when they face Bangladesh tomorrow.
West Indies are yet to win a match since arriving in the Abu Dhabi, losing both warm up matches and to England and South Africa when the Super 12 competition commenced.
They will need to win all their matches onwards if they are to have a chance of a spot in the semi-finals.
Similarly, Bangladesh will require nothing less.
At the centre of the West Indies’ unsavory performances is a struggling batting line up. While in their last match the openers shared a half-century stand, West Indies only managed 143 with Lendl Simmons soaking up 34 balls for his 16 runs. His slothful innings ensured that any sort of positivity that was provided by Evin Lewis, who made 56, was diminished and quickly as his team resorted to playing catch up.
Both Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran continue to struggle to find runs. Against the South Africans they only were able to muster 12 runs each despite Pooran’s promotion to number three.
Gayle’s form has been the talk of the town and it would be baffling should the West Indies think-tank, if one can call them that, include the 42-year-old for this fourth match.
The left-hander’s strike rate of 93 is the lowest against any team.
This year, the Jamaican has so far played 18 matches and scored 252 runs with one half century and a strike rate of 115.
The West Indies selectors have come under heavy criticism for the exclusion of Roston Chase who has been in a rich vein of form ever since the Caribbean Premier League.
However, with the reluctance to drop Gayle, it seems Shimron Hetmyer may have to make room for the off-spinning all-rounder, especially since he was pushed down to number seven and run out off the second ball he faced.
Also, the power-hitting strength of the side looks to be a tad rusty with Andre Russell appearing to be still recovering from his injury in the Indian Premier League, leaving a lot resting on the captain, Kieron Pollard’s shoulders.
On the bright side, Jason Holder has been drafted into the side to replace the injured Obed McCoy and would be a useful inclusion to the side where he will provide a bit of firepower at the lower order and a useful seam option to complement Ravi Rampaul.
Should Chase be included, it would be interesting to see if West Indies will go for two frontline spinners in left-arm orthodox, Akeal Hosein and leggie Hayden Walsh Jr.
With this combination, it would be tough to see Dwayne Bravo included in the playing XI but given his exploits in the death overs, Simmons could take the bench with Gayle promoted back to an opener in order to facilitate a solid bowling unit.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh are also facing similar problems within the side despite being unable to defend 171-4 against Sri Lanka and then being contained to just 124-9 against England.
Mushfiqur Rahim remains the go-to batsman in the side, already chalking up a useful half-century but will require support from openers, Linton Das and Mohammad Naim.
The trio will be tasked with providing the foundation for the likes of all-rounders, Mahmudullah and Shakib Al-Hasan to go berserk at the back end of the innings.
Both of them will also need to play big roles with the ball to aid Mustafizur Rahman and Mahedi Hasan’s exploits should they counter the West Indies batting might.
The match begins at 06.00 hours.
