West Indies eye big total as Pakistan clarify Abbas' absence

West Indies opener Brandon King believes his side is well placed to deliver a big first innings total following an eventful opening day to second Test against Pakistan in Trinidad.

On a day interrupted by rain and bad light, the West Indies reached 239/5 at stumps in the second ICC World Test Championship contest at Queen's Park Oval, with in-form all-rounder Justin Greaves (64*) and skipper Roston Chase (36*) unbeaten with the duo having already contributed 66 runs for the sixth wicket.

The pair scored with relative ease after Pakistan enjoyed some joy with the ball after Chase won to the toss and elected to bat first, with King scoring 46 at the top of the order for the hosts before he played around a straight delivery from Ali Usman.

King hit nine fours during his 50-ball stay early int he day and the right-hander thinks his team is well placed to post a big first innings total.

"We needed those partnerships at the end of the day and it was good to see those guys (Greaves, (Shai) Hope and Chase) making those contributions," King said at stumps.

"It would be nice if we get more of the same from them tomorrow and Justin and Roston can go on to get hundreds."

Earlier in the day Pakistan made four changes to the playing XI that lost the opening Test of the series by 90 runs to the West Indies, with former skipper Shan Masood among the omissions after he hurt his finger in that first fixture.

The side also made the surprising decision to leave out in-form pacer Mohammad Abbas, despite the fact the right-armer picked up eight wickets in the first Test in Tarouba which included his seventh five-wicket haul in Tests.

Babar Azam was quizzed by Ian Bishop at the toss about the absence of Abbas and the Pakistan skipper suggested there was no injury concern for the 36-year-old and it was purely 'down to conditions' as to why he had been left out of the side.

The omission of Abbas saw young right-armer Ubaid Shah handed a debut in the second Test and the 20-year-old was expensive (1/56 from nine overs) when picking up the sole wicket of Amir Jangoo for 26 on the opening day of the match.

Series schedule:

First Test: July 25-29, Tarouba
Second Test: August 2-6, Port of Spain