Five reasons why Pakistan will defeat West Indies in the 1st ODI

Pakistan will be favourites despite a poor Champions Trophy

Pakistan visit the Caribbean after a catastrophic Champions Trophy campaign where they bowed out of the group stage after being handed out three consecutive defeats.

They have made a number of major changes to their squad, axing certain senior members like Kamran Akmal, Shoaib Malik and Imran Farhat whereas Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal make yet another comeback.

Pakistan will take courage from the fact that though their batting has let them down frequently, they have one of the best bowling departments in the world even when Umar Gul is missing through injury. This facet of their game was on exhibition in their practice match against Guyana where they defended a moderate total of 246 through the exploits of Md. Irfan and Saeed Ajmal.

West Indies, on the other hand, suffer from the great flaw of inconsistency. They had a terrific start to their campaign in the Tri-Nation trophy, grabbing two consecutive victories in Jamaica, one with a bonus point, and still managed to give way to India and Sri Lanka as they missed out on the final.

West Indies play a brand of very entertaining cricket with their bowlers striving for pace, whereas the likes of Kieron Pollard, Chris Gayle and Johnson Charles are some of the best hard-hitting batsmen of the game. However, they lack a sense of proportion. They lack a batsman who can stand ground in the middle overs of a 50-over-match and accumulate runs.

Here is a list of five reasons why Pakistan are likely to win the first battle in this five-match series:

5. Weakened opposition

The failure of Chris Gayle will spell doom for West Indies

West Indies relied on two outstanding individual performances in the two matches that they managed to win in the tri-series which came from Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle. They will be heavily dependent on these two players in this series as well as they can establish a platform by attacking the hard new ball.

However, their threat is likely to be neutralised by the fantastic pace battery that Pakistan boast of. Their middle-order is vulnerable to meltdowns and the likes of Darren Bravo and Marlon Samuels can be frustratingly inconsistent. Furthermore, West Indies lack the nerve to hold onto a match against quality competition which means they can crumble from a position of dominance to lose the match.