West Indies opt to bat first against BCB XI

The visiting West Indies decided to bat first in the 50-over practice match against Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) XI at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Prothishthan (BSKP) ground in Savar on Thursday.

This is the only 50-over practice game for the Caribbean boys before the one-day series that is scheduled to be played form 9 December. The first two games of the three-match series will take place at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and the remaining one will be held at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium. 

BCB announced a strong squad for this match by including Mashrafe Mortaza and Tamim Iqbal. Eight other players from the current Bangladesh side are also participating in the match. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the one-day captain of the Bangladesh senior side, is leading BCB XI. 

Mashrafe played his last international match during the Zimbabwe series while Tamim was out of action after his unfortunate exit from the Asia Cup opener following a nasty blow on his left wrist by a bouncer of Sri Lanka’s Suranga Lakmal.

Since then the left-handed opener was recovering, but before the Test series against West Indies he got a side strain that further delayed his comeback. After recovering from both injuries, Tamim is now fit to play. 

Rovman Powell, the right-handed explosive batsman, will lead Windies in the practice as well as will lead the visiting side in one-dayers. 

BCB XI: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, Towhid Hridoy, Ariful Haque, Akbar Ali, Rubel Hossain, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, Shahin Alam, Mehedi Hasan Rana, Nazmul Islam Apu

West Indies: Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell (c), Darren Bravo, Shai Hope(w), Marlon Samuels, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Fabian Allen, Keemo Paul, Sunil Ambris, Carlos Brathwaite, Kemar Roach, Devendra Bishoo, Oshane Thomas, Chandrapaul Hemraj.

Source: unb