Vin­ode Mam­chan

Af­ter their nar­row 56-run loss in the open­ing Test match of the Haier Cup se­ries against Pak­istan in Dubai in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE), the West In­dies now find them­selves hav­ing to fight back in Abu Dhabi, which is a fortress for Pak­istan.

The West In­dies staged a great come­back in the open­ing day/night Test and af­ter con­ced­ing 579 runs for three wick­ets in the first in­nings, rout­ed Pak­istan for 123 in the sec­ond to give them­selves a chance of vic­to­ry. Chas­ing 346 runs to win, they got a bril­liant 116 from Dar­ren Bra­vo which took them close but not over the line, as they fell for 289.

Skip­per Ja­son Hold­er speak­ing at his team's train­ing at the Sheikh Za­yed Crick­et Sta­di­um yes­ter­day was con­fi­dent of an­oth­er good show­ing.

"Great pos­i­tives came from the open­ing game. We staged a good come­back and al­though here may be a fortress for Pak­istan, we have shown that we can com­pete. We didn't get over the line in the first Test, we showed some hurt and have re­freshed our minds com­ing in­to this Test match."

The Bar­ba­di­an all rounder is call­ing for an im­proved per­for­mance in his team's out crick­et.

"We could be a bit bet­ter in the field, cut down the no balls, we saw one in the first game which re­al­ly cost us. We have pre­pared for this game and we need to stick to our plan for a bit longer to be suc­cess­ful."

Hold­er said his team has come to terms with the tracks in the UAE and will show an im­proved per­for­mance.

"With these pitch­es you have here, one has to be a bit more pa­tient. The spin­ners did get wick­ets in the first Test but we need to al­low the spin­ners to get in­to their work, to see the re­sults."

Af­ter the ex­per­i­ment of the pink ball in the first Test, the play­ers will be back to the red ball for this match.

"We are ac­cus­tomed play­ing red ball crick­et and we had to ad­just to the pink ball and al­so ad­just the body clock, play­ing in the af­ter­noon and in­to the night. Now we are back play­ing in the day with the red ball and this should be more fa­mil­iar for the guys."

Look­ing at the op­po­si­tion, he said they were wary of Pak­istan's main threat in Yasir Shah.

"Pak­istan has a qual­i­ty spin­ner in Yasir Shah and one in­ex­pe­ri­enced one in (Mo­ham­mad) Nawaz. We know that the bulk of the work will fall on Yasir and we have a plan for him. He was not as ef­fec­tive as he would have liked on a day five pitch in the first Test. We need pa­tience deal­ing with him as there is a say­ing that the longer you stay at the crease the eas­i­er it be­comes and we just need to do that."

He al­so took note of the re­turn of bat­ting main­stay You­nis Khan.

"You­nis is a qual­i­ty play­er and com­ing off his last in­nings he is com­ing off a dou­ble hun­dred, so we know of his cal­i­bre. How­ev­er crick­et is played on the day and we saw some footage of him and have a plan for him."

Pak­istan has played eight match­es at the Sheikh Za­yed Sta­di­um and has been un­beat­en there. They have won four of the match­es, whilst the oth­er four have end­ed in drawn match­es. The West In­dies have nev­er played a Test match here be­fore. The pitch here gives as­sis­tance to the fast bowlers ear­li­er on and be­cause it is not en­closed, it al­lows for swing. Pak­istan though has shown that they can make loads of runs here, as they have got­ten over 500 runs on four oc­ca­sions and 400 on two oc­ca­sions.

While the West In­dies is ex­pect­ed to re­main un­changed, Pak­istan will more than like­ly make two changes, in that You­nis Khan is in for Babar Azam, fast bowler So­hail Khan may be out and Zul­fiqar Babar, the left arm spin­ner, in­clud­ed.

Play gets un­der­way at 10 am (2 am T&T time).

Teams

West In­dies: Ja­son Hold­er (cap­tain), Kraigg Brath­waite (vice cap­tain), De­ven­dra Bishoo, Jer­maine Black­wood, Car­los Brath­waite, Dar­ren Bra­vo, Ros­ton Chase, Miguel Cum­mins, Shane Dowrich, Shan­non Gabriel, Shai Hope, Leon John­son, Alzarri Joseph, Mar­lon Samuels and Jomel War­ri­can.

Pak­istan: Pak­istan: Sa­mi Aslam, Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Mis­bah ul Haq (cap­tain), Babar Azam, Sar­fraz Ahmed (wk), Mo­ham­mad Nawaz, Wa­hab Ri­az, Yasir Shah, Mo­ham­mad Amir, You­nis Khan, Zul­fiqar Babar and So­hail Khan.