West Indies have won the toss and will bowl first in the second Test against Pakistan. As was the case in the first Test, Kraigg Brathwaite had little hesitation putting Pakistan’s openers in. “The pitch has a bit of moisture and it’s key we use that,” he said. “The surface offers more assistance to the pacers, but of course quality spinners could still have an impact.”
To that end, West Indies have dropped spinner Jomel Warrican, bringing in right arm fast bowler Alzarri Joseph. It still leaves them with the option of Roston Chase’s offspin, should it be required.
Pakistan, who need to win this Test to stave off a series defeat, would also have bowled first, acknowledged skipper Babar Azam. “We’ll try to see off the new ball. We’ve been working hard for a couple of days and had a day off before the game, so we feel fresh and ready,” he said. Pakistan, too, have dropped a spinner, but they bring in left arm slow bowler Nauman Ali in Yasir Shah’s place.
West Indies led the series 1-0 after winning the first Test at Sabina Park by one wicket on Sunday.
West Indies: 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt) 2 Kieron Powell 3 Nkrumah Bonner 4 Jermaine Blackwood 5 Roston Chase 6 Kyle Mayers 7 Jason Holder 8 Joshua da Silva (wk) 9 Alzarri Joseph 10 Kemar Roach 11 Jayden Seales.
Pakistan:: 1 Abid Ali 2 Imran Butt 3 Azhar Ali 4 Babar Azam (capt) 5 Fawad Alam 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 7 Faheem Ashraf 8 Hasan Ali 9 Nauman Ali 10 Mohammad Abbas 11 Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Danyal Rasool is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Danny61000
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