West Indies opt to bat on drizzly morning

Toss West Indies chose to bat v Zimbabwe
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Despite early-morning rain in Bulawayo, West Indies captain Jason Holder chose to bat in the first Test. West Indies made no changes to their XI from their previous Test, against England, at Lord’s.

“The pitch looks a little dry. Want to make first use of the surface,” Holder said at the toss. “We’ve been doing some good things over the past year, just need to win a series by putting our batting, bowling and fielding together.”

Zimbabwe were buoyed by the return of Brendan Taylor and fast bowler Kyle Jarvis from Kolpak deals in England. Captain Graeme Cremer confirmed that Taylor will bat at No. 4.

“We would’ve wanted to bat first too, but the pitch will do something,” Cremer said. “You need to score 650-odd runs across two innings to have a chance.”

Zimbabwe: 1 Solomon Mire, 2 Hamilton Masakadza, 3 Craig Ervine, 4 Brendan Taylor, 5 Sean Williams, 6 Sikandar Raza, 7 Regis Chakabva (wk), 8 Malcolm Waller, 9 Graeme Cremer (capt), 10 Kyle Jarvis, 11 Chris Mpofu.

West Indies: 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kyle Hope, 4 Shai Hope, 5 Roston Chase, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Devendra Bishoo, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel.

Liam Brickhill is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town

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Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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