West Indies and Sri Lanka will face off in the third and final test of the series from June 23 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. With Windies leading 1-0, the Asian islanders will now have to win their first pink ball encounter in Caribbean island to prevent a series defeat.
Pink Balls used in Day Night Test Match
Day Night Test Stats :This will be first Day-Night Fixture between the teams. While Lankans have tasted success in their one and only appearance against Pakistan in October 2017 where they came out victorious by 68 Runs.
On the other hand Windies are yet to open their account in this format having lost on both occasions against Pakistan by 56 Runs and England by an innings and 209 Runs respectively.
Rangana Herath to take Captaincy Duties
Sri Lanka : Sri Lankan Skipper Dinesh Chandimal has been handed a one-test suspension by ICC after being found guilty in the ball-tampering incident during the second test and will therefore miss the Barbados test. Rangana Herath might take over the captaincy duties during his absence.
After suffering a massive 226-run defeat in the first test, Sri Lanka put up a decent fight during second especially with improved batting performance and they will be taking plenty of confidence from that into the final test.
With Dinesh Chandimal serving suspension the onus will be on Kusal Mendis who is currently the leading run-getter in the series with 238 runs to provide good start to innings while Dickwella and Silva who batted well during second test would like to replicate their performance.
Jason Holder (Windies Skipper)
Windies : West Indies will consider themselves lucky after having escaped what seemed as a probable defeat in the St Lucia test. All due to Sri Lanka's unnecessary protest followed by bad light and rain halting the final day's play.
After a good batting display on the previous three occasions , the hosts were left staggering in the final innings of second test at 117-5 in their pursuit of 296 runs.
For home side, Shane Dowrich and Kumar Roach will be amoung players to watch, where Shane has been pick of the batsmen having scored the most runs for their team in this series 201 runs which includes a century and a fifty is expected to continue his good form. While Roach has been incredible throughout the series with 17 scalps including a match haul of six wickets at St Lucia. With all players performing and the series 1-0 in their favour, the Windies will likely not tinker with the combination
Expected Teams : Sri Lanka : Kusal Perera, Mahela Udawatte, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Akila Dananjaya, Rangana Herath, Suranga Lakmal, Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumar.
West Indies : Jason Holder (c), Kraigg Brathwaite, Devon Smith, Kieran Powell, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich (wk), Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Miguel Cummins and Shannon Gabriel.
SCHEDULE : Afghanistan will play their first full series against West Indies when they embark on a tour to the Caribbean in June 2017. Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), on Monday (July 25), announced that the national team will play five One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) in mid-June, although the cricket board did not reveal the specific dates.
OVERVIEW : Afghanistan have only played two full series & both against Zimbabwe. Afghanistan toured Zimbabwe for a series of 5 ODIs and 2 T20Is in October 2015 & hosted Zimbabwe in return series in Sharjah two months later. Both times came up with a fine performance, winning the ODIs 3-2 and then went on to clinch a 2-0 victory in the two-match T20I series. Afghanistan are yet to suffer a series loss. After a 1-0 victory in the two-match ODI series against Scotland earlier this month, Afghanistan returned home with a 2-2 result at the conclusion of the five-match ODI series against Ireland in july 2016.While they Afghans recently clinched a thrilling six-run win against the Darren Sammy-led side during the league stage of the ICC World T20 2016. But they are yet to face West Indies in an ODI. It'll be interesting to see how these teams will go against each other in carrabean island where Afghanistan played their 1st ICC event few years ago.
COMMENTS ;
Michael Muirhead (WICB CEO) : "This series will add to the variety of cricket our teams will be playing for the next year and we are happy to be able to have teams visit the region to add exposure for all our players,"
Shafiq Stanikazi (ACB Chief) :"This is a major series with very attractive teams featuring some of the world's best players. We look forward to some very entertaining cricket in T20 and ODI. On behalf of Afghanistan Cricket Board, I am very thankful to West Indies Cricket Board for agreeing to be hosts for the series,"
NOTE : Fixtures list will be updated after final confirmation by both boards.
SCHEDULE : Tour will begin on Thursday, 17/August/2017 where West Indies will face off England in full series comprising 3 TESTS, 5 ODI's & 1 T20I at 8 UK venues & will conclude on Friday, 26/September/2017.
SCHEDULE : Tour will begin on Friday, 3/March/2017 where England will play 3 ODI's against West Indies at Antigua and Barbados & will end on Thursday, 9/March/2017.
