West Indies, Ireland look to flourish under new leadership

Overview

**West Indies v Ireland**1st ODI
Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados
Tuesday, 07 January; 01:30pm local, 05:30pm GMT

West Indies have just wound up a trophy-less tour of India, but Pollard’s men have shown that they are up for a fight. It helped them push an all-powerful Indian unit hard – a welcome change for a team that has often capitulated to lose from winning positions.

Before the India series, they swept Afghanistan 3-0 for their first ODI series win in five years. On the back of these gains, they have opted to rest their star all-rounder Jason Holder for the first two ODIs against Ireland.

For Ireland, this will be their first assignment since finishing third at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 in Dubai. They’ve spent the interim period fine-tuning their game indoors at home.

Their batsmen had a solid workout in the warm-up game against the West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI, with much of their top and middle order coming good with solid contributions. Their bowlers picked up seven wickets in reply, but that couldn’t prevent defeat, as the home team reached their target with 20 balls to spare.

Under a new captain in Andy Balbirnie, can Ireland make a positive start in their first fixture of the new year?

What happened last time

In the fourth match of a home tri-nation series, also involving Bangladesh, Ireland racked up 327/5 on the back of Balbirnie’s 135. But Sunil Ambris trumped that effort with a 126-ball 148 as West Indies ran down the total with five wickets and 13 balls remaining.

What they said

Andy Balbirnie, Ireland captain: "I'm feeling pretty good about the first game. It will be a different experience for me captaining the side, but one I'm really looking forward to.”

Conditions

A pleasant day awaits in Bridgetown. In the last ODI played at this venue, West Indies rode on an unbeaten century from young gun Shimron Hetmyer to put up 289/6 against England, before their bowlers fought off half-centuries from Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes to defend the total by 26 runs.