KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP):
THE WEST Indies and Bangladesh are focusing on their bowling attacks to provide winning opportunities ahead of the opener of the three-match one-day cricket series today.
The home team has brought in their two fastest bowlers, Tino Best and Fidel Edwards, to face international cricket's weakest nation.
Bangladesh are set to use spinners and slower bowlers to try to spring an upset on the West Indies at Arnos Vale.
Best has yet to play a one-day international while Edwards has appeared in just two. But both shook up England in last month's Test series in the Caribbean with their pace and Bangladesh's batting could be tested.
Best and Edwards, both 22, consistently clock more than 90 miles per hour (144 kilometres per hour) and they should be competitive on a traditionally low-scoring pitch.
The West Indies have won 12 of the 13 matches at this venue since its inauguration in 1981, including 11 in a row. The only defeat came at the hands of Pakistan in 1993.
A DIFFERENT PROBLEM
The West Indies' batting will have a different problem in countering the slow bowling from the visitors.
Even without injured leader Brian Lara, there is enough firepower from stand-in captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell and Dwayne Smith to provide formidable totals.
But Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar says his team's strength is in its balanced bowling attack.
"We have two good spinners in Mohammad Rafique and Manzural Islam Rana," Bashar said. "Our bowling is all right but we need to score some runs. If we score some runs, we'll have a good game."
Bashar himself leads a batting line-up which has struggled to make a mark at the international level.
Mohammad Ashraful and Rajin Saleh, however, are two young players capable of leading the Bangladesh batting well into the future.
Ashraful, 19, and Saleh, 20, both hit half centuries in the recent one-day series against a full-strength Zimbabwe side that ended with a narrow 2-1 defeat for Bangladesh.
All-rounders Mushfiqur Rahman, Islam Rana and former skipper Khaled Mahmud also lend much-needed solidity to the lower order.
"Hopefully, we'll do better than we did in the series in Zimbabwe," Bashar said.
Sarwan will lead the West Indies for the second time because of Lara's recurring injury to his right pinky finger.
The 23-year-old was at the helm when the West Indies lost to England in the seven-match series opener in Guyana last month. But Sarwan said he was happy with the way he performed despite the defeat.
"I thought in Guyana I did a pretty good job. It was one over that actually changed the game," Sarwan said. "I was complimented by all my teammates and I appreciated the way they treated me throughout the game."
The one-day series starts with successive matches over the weekend, and concludes in Grenada on Wednesday.
SQUADS
WEST INDIES: Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Sylvester Joseph, Dwayne Bravo, Ridley Jacobs, Ian Bradshaw, Ravi Rampaul, Tino Best, Fidel Edwards, Devon Smith.
BANGLADESH: Habibul Bashar (captain), Khaled Mashud, Khaled Mahmud, Abdur Razzaq, Foysal Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Mohammad Rafique, Tareq Aziz Khan, Tapash Baishya, Rajin Saleh, Manzarul Islam Rana, Sahariar Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahman, Hannan Sarkar, Alok Kapali.
