Toss West Indies chose to bowl vs New Zealand
West Indies captain Shai Hope won the toss and inserted New Zealand in to bat in the opening ODI at Providence in Guyana.
On a cool afternoon, West Indies went in with three spinners, 19-year-old left-arm wristspinner Vitel Lawes among them. He was part of the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year and hasn't yet played a professional List-A match. Gudakesh Motie and Khary Pierre, who was drafted in as Roston Chase's replacement, were the other two with quicks Alzarri and Shamar Joseph completing the line-up. Ackeem Auguste was pencilled in to open the batting with John Campbell.
New Zealand, too, had three spinners to turn to in captain Mitchell Santner, offspinner Michael Bracewell and left-armer Jayden Lennox. They handed an ODI cap to Matthew Fisher, who clocked 150kph on T20I debut in Bangladesh earlier this year. The Champions Trophy runners-up also welcomed Daryl Mitchell back into the middle order with Will Young and Henry Nicholls slated to open.
The Providence Stadium pitch has been known to be on the slower side. Darren Ganga, inspecting the surface, said that its even grass cover meant that the pace and bounce would be consistent, even if the bounce would be slightly low. He added that the spinners would be "potent". The straight boundary was 74m away while one square boundary was seven metres longer than the other.
This five-match ODI series is crucial for West Indies in their attempt to secure direct qualification for the men's ODI World Cup next year.
West Indies: 1 John Campbell, 2 Ackeem Auguste, 3 Keacy Carty, 4 Shai Hope (capt & wk), 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Amir Jangoo, 7 Gudakesh Motie, 8 Khary Pierre 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Shamar Joseph, 11 Vitel Lawes
New Zealand: 1 Will Young, 2 Henry Nicholls, 3 Mark Chapman, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Matt Fisher, 10 Jacob Duffy 11 Jayden Lennox