Toss Pakistan opt to bowl v West Indies
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Legspinner Shadab Khan, who impressed for Islamabad United in PSL 2017, was handed an international debut © PCB
Sarfraz Ahmed called correctly as Pakistan elected to bowl in the first Twenty20 International at Kensington Oval at Bridgetown.
Kamran Akmal returned to the side for the first time in close to three years and will play as a specialist batsman. He will most-likely open the innings with another comeback man Ahmed Shehzad, who last played an international at the World T20 in India last year.
Eighteen-year old legspinner Shadab Khan, who impressed for Islamabad United at PSL 2017, was handed an international debut.
West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite was happy to bat first and confident of making up for the disappointment of a 3-0 loss to Pakistan the last time the two sides met in this format, in UAE late last year. Rovman Powell, the allrounder, was handed a T20I debut. The experienced T20 trio of Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree returned to bolster the line-up.
This is the first of four T20Is, with the next three to be held in Trinidad & Tobago.
West Indies: 1 Evin Lewis, 2 Chadwick Walton (wk), 3 Marlon Samuels, 4 Lendl Simmons, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Rovman Powell, 7 Carlos Brathwaite (capt), 8 Jason Holder, 9 Sunil Narine, 10 Samuel Badree, 11 Kesrick Williams
Pakistan: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Kamran Akmal, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt, wk), 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Wahab Riaz, 11 Hasan Ali
Danyal Rasool is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Danny61000
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo