Downtrodden Pakistan to face Windies Today in WC

The second match of the ICC World Cup 2019 will see former champions West Indies and Pakistan face off against each other at Trent Bridge on Friday afternoon.

The match is scheduled to start at 3:30pm Bangladesh Time.

It is a case opposing fortunes for the two teams as West Indies have been in great form in the lead-up to the tournament while Pakistan are stuttering.

The Windies were put into bat by New Zealand in one of their warm-up games and they ended up giving the Kiwis a mammoth target of 422 runs. Shai Hope scored a hundred while Andre Russell plundered a quick-fire half-century.

New Zealand could only manage 330 runs in reply as they lost their second warm-up match by 91 runs.

On the other hand, Pakistan have been on a terrible run of games recently. They are on a 10-game losing streak in One Day Internationals in 2019 as they suffered two successive winless series against Australia (5-0) and England (4-0) respectively.

They were hoping for a better display in their first warm-up match but they again ended up on the losing side as minnows Afghanistan overcame the 1992 world champions by 3 wickets.

However, there is some good news for the Men in Green as pacer Mohammad Amir has been declared fit and could play against the West Indies.

What statistics denotes?
West Indies and Pakistan have been facing off since the 1975 World Cup but the Caribbeans have a clear edge over Pakistan when it comes to results.

The West Indies, now going as the Windies, won the first two editions of World Cup in 1975 and 1979 while Pakistan became the World champions in 1992 under Imran Khan's leadership.

While the Windies and Pakistan both are not as strong as they once were, they are still forces to reckon with.

Pakistan won the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy playing in England and that shall be huge a confidence-booster for them. The Windies also announced their arrival by smashing 421 runs in one of their warm-up matches against New Zealand right before the World Cup.

Windies and Pakistan have played 10 World Cup matches and the Windies are way ahead in the running with seven wins while Pakistan have just won only three.

World Cup head to head:

Matches: 10

West Indies won: 7

Pakistan won: 3

Ties: 0

No result: 0

If we are go by stats, Windies are the clear favourites but make no mistake Pakistan also have the fire-power to upset any side on a given day.

It will be great to see the match-up between big Windies batsmen and crafty Pakistani bowlers.

West Indies probable squad:

Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Darren Bravo, Jason Holder (capt), Andre Russell, Ashley Nurse, Kemar Roach, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas

Pakistan Probable Squad:

Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt, wk), Mohammad Hafeez/Imad Wasim, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz