The International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, one of the biggest events, is just around the corners and once-formidable West Indies has reached England and are prepping hard for the mega event.
West Indies, who are considered as one of the underdogs in the ten-team event, qualified for the same after beating Scotland by five runs by the Duckworth–Lewis method in the qualifying event. They, along with Afghanistan, joined the hosts and the seven other teams who had already qualified through their ranking in the ICC ODI Championship.
Jason Holder will lead the West Indies team in his fifth World Cup and will head into the event as the most experienced player in the squad, having played in 289 ODIs scoring 10,151 runs. Swashbuckling opening batsman Chris Gayle, meanwhile, will serve as his deputy.
Though the Carribean side has struggled to qualify for the ICC World Cup last year, they will head into the quadrennial event as a dangerous and unpredictable outfit that no team would like to take it lightly.
However, it is to be noted that West Indies will go into the showpiece tournament without an ODI series victory in 19 attempts they have made since beating Bangladesh in 2014.
Two-time champions West Indies are slated to play two warm-up matches on May 26 and May 28 before they will begin their campaign at the mega event against Pakistan on May 31 in Nottingham.
Let us have a look at West Indies's complete schedule and squad for the event:
COMPLETE SCHEDULE
May 31: West Indies vs Pakistan (3:00 pm)
June 6: Australia vs West Indies (3:00 pm)
June 10: South Africa vs West Indies(3:00 pm)
June 14: England vs West Indies (3:00 pm)
June 17: West Indies vs Bangladesh (3:00 pm)
June 22: West Indies vs New Zealand (6:00 pm)
June 27: West Indies vs India (3:00 pm)
July 01: Sri Lanka vs West Indies (3:00 pm)
July 04: Afghanistan vs West Indies (3:00 pm)
SEMI-FINAL
July 9: 1st semi-final (1 vs 4) (3:00 pm)
July 11: 2nd semi-final (2 vs 3) (3:00 pm)
FINAL
July 14 at Lord's (3:00 pm)
Here is the full squad:
Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wicketkeeper), Nicholas Pooran (wicketkeeper), Carlos Brathwaite, Andre Russell, Ashley Nurse, Shannon Gabriel, Fabian Allen, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell.
