West Indies begin their tour of Ireland and England on Wednesday when they take on the former in the first of three ODIs in Dublin with both sides looking to put themselves in a position where they are in control of the series.
This represents a good chance for Ireland to compete against a top level nation across the 50 over format and it is an opportunity for West Indies to further show their improvement in the ODI ranks as they look to build towards the next World Cup.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the TNT Sports 2 channel in the UK with the build-up to the contest beginning at 10.30am ahead of the first ball being bowled at 10.45am.
Ireland
This feels like a big series for Ireland. It is rare that they get to face established opposition over three matches. This is a chance to remind everyone that they can compete against the better sides and also to prove that they should be taking on this level of challenge on a more regular basis. In their own conditions they will fancy their chances of competing strongly too, especially if West Indies have an eye on the series with England which follows on from these matches.
This will be the first time that we have seen Ireland in the ODI format since February when they were beaten by an improving Zimbabwe side. In that series their bowling really struggled and that will be the acid test for them here because if they don’t get into the West Indies batting order with the new ball then they could be chasing plenty of leather over the course of the day. If Ireland are going to win this match and the series then they need to bat very well.
West Indies
This probably isn’t going to be the biggest focus for the West Indies over the coming weeks but they will know if they want to be competitive against England they could do with building up some confidence over these three matches and while reinforcements will arrive ahead of the series with England, this is a chance for those who are involved to show that they are good enough to take on the English next month which should add to the competitiveness.
This has been the weaker of the two white ball formats for a while now for West Indies but they will want to be at the 2027 World Cup having missed the 2023 tournament so they need to get into the top eight in the world rankings over the next couple of years to avoid going to the qualifying event. They are sat at nine at the minute with England one ahead of them in the standings so the next few weeks are going to be quite big for the men from the Caribbean.
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Team News
We have gotten used to Ireland not always having their best players around with all the T20 competitions going on but they have all their recognisable names for this series with the exception of Mark Adair who is out with injury.
West Indies will be missing Shimron Hetmyer from their strongest side for this series but Jewel Andrew gets another chance. Romario Shepherd is another who has remained at the IPL but Shamar Joseph has joined up with the squad.
Betting
We haven’t seen too much cricket on this ground in terms of ODIs in recent times but there was a three-match T20 series between Ireland and Pakistan here a year ago and all three were high scoring and that blends in with what I would expect here. To be fair, I always expect Ireland matches to be high scoring because their batting is very much their stronger suit and that is especially the case in this series with Mark Adair missing out because of injury.
I think we can safely assume that West Indies are going to have it within them to score big here against an Ireland attack which is there to be got after even when it is at full strength let alone one which has some injury issues but on the flip side of that there isn’t anything mysterious in the West Indies attack and a few of these Ireland players have competed in the Caribbean Premier League so they will know what they are coming up against. The run line for this one is 521.5 and that feels a little on the low side to me.
Tips
Back Over 521.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
