Test cricket is back this week as the West Indies and Pakistan set off on a three match series which gets underway in Jamaica on Friday. This series will carry plenty of hype around it with two high profile player retiring at the end of it but we shouldn’t forget that the winner of this match will go one up with two to play.
West Indies
It is imperative for cricket as a whole that the West Indies become a force once again and if they are going to do that then they need to find a way to make their home stadia fortresses. Teams used to fear going anywhere near the Caribbean and now that more former players are getting involved with them you would hope those days would return.
The current crop need to find a settled batting line up who can mix their supreme hitting ability with patience and a will to grind it out when needed to put up sizeable first innings scores from which their bowlers can get to work and put pressure on the opposition. They haven’t done that enough for a good while.
Pakistan
Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan will depart at the end of the series so the motivation for the Pakistan side is pretty obvious over the next few weeks. They will want to send two genuine legends of Pakistan cricket into retirement off the back of a series win and generally when a common goal is there this lot strive hard to achieve it.
Misbah and Younis can’t afford to play party roles in this series though. Their runs will be needed throughout as it is still the batting which has a frail edge to it. Their bowling should be very strong in these conditions but that counts for nothing if the batsmen don’t score runs. If they do score Pakistan could well end a run of six Test defeats on the bounce.
Team News
It looks likely that the West Indies will give debuts to Shimron Hetmyer and Vishaul Singh in this match while there is a return for Kieran Powell at the top of the order.
Pakistan will go into the match without Hasan Ali who is out for this one with a groin injury. Mohammad Asghar could come in for a debut which would be significant.
Sabina Park
This is a historic Test match on this ground as it will be the 50th time Test cricket has been staged here. West Indies have a strong record here too. They have 23 wins to 12 defeats with 14 draws from the previous 49 matches here while Pakistan have a win and two losses from three outings.
Jason Holder has reportedly called for wickets which have something in them for this series so there might be a wee bit more pace and bounce than we would normally expect. Rain is around the area and that could juice it up a bit too.
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Betting
Given that there is a forecast of rain being around I’m not going to get too involved in the betting in this match but there are two I like. I would take the draw with the forecast but the brittle nature of these batting line ups puts me off that.
This is a big series for Jason Holder. He leads the side well but the best way to lead it is by taking wickets and scoring runs and it is always important that a captain starts a series well to set the tone. I fancy Holder will do that. If there is a bit of zip in the wicket he’ll extract it but we saw in the ODIs that he can bat well too. His performance is 89.5pts and that looks within reach to me.
Jermaine Blackwood has three half centuries in four innings on his home ground in Test cricket and at 6/1 he’s decent value to top score in this first innings. He was the third highest scorer when these two met in the UAE but there is no Darren Bravo in this series. We saw against England that he can play seam and spin and at 6/1 he’s value in this inexperienced batting line up.
Tips
WON – Back J.Holder’s Performance – Over 89.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back it here:
VOID – Back J.Blackwood Top West Indies 1st Inns Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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