West Indies will lock horns with England in a Group 1 encounter of the ICC World T20 2016 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Wednesday.
This is relatively an easier group than Group 2 which hosts teams like India, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
West Indies , who have not fared well in the shortest format of the game in recent times, despite holding a strong lineup, will look to make a positive start to the ICC World T20.
If they manage to start off with a victory, it may just set the tone for the rest of the tournament.
Meanwhile, England are well-oiled for this tournament. They have played some good all-round cricket in this format of the game. They defeated Pakistan in a bilateral series and came close to a T20 series win against South Africa recently.
Eoin Morgan and co. will be high on confidence and many critics have termed this England side as the dark horses of the ICC World T20 2016.
However, England do not have fond memories of facing the West Indies in the past in T20 cricket. The Caribbeans have got the better of England eight out of 12 times they have played against each other. Also, England and West Indies have met three times in World T20 competitions, with the latter emerging victorious in all occasions.
West Indies have some seriously big-hitters in their ranks -- Chris Gayle, Johnson Charles, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Andre Fletcher -- and they also bat pretty deep.
The West Indies bowling needs to be addressed by the captain Sammy, as they conceded way too many runs during the Powerplay overs in the warmup games.
Despite missing names like Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Darren Bravo, West Indies have a seriously strong T20 side.
Meanwhile, England will be counting on the likes of Alex Hales, Joe Root, Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, who are seasoned T20 campaigners.
Chris Jordan, David Willey, Ali, Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid are likely to handle the bowling attack.
Willey picked up a hat-trick during a warmup game Monday. And that too the hat-trick came against his own teammates, as he was featuring for the Maharashtra Cricket Association XI.
Squads: England: Eoin Morgan(C), Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Jos Buttler(wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Liam Dawson, Reece Topley, Chris Jordan, James Vince, Sam Billings.
West Indies: Darren Sammy (C), Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Jason Holder, Jerome Taylor, Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Andre Fletcher, Evin Lewis.
ICC World T20 2016 West Indies vs England schedule:
Date: March 15, Wednesday.
Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
Timing: 7.30 p.m. IST (10 a.m. WIT, 2 p.m. GMT, 9 a.m. ET).
TV listings: India: Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD1, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD 3. Indian subcontinent: Star Sports network. New Zealand: Sky Sport 1. UK: Sky Sports HD2. USA and Canada: Willow TV. Middle East and North Africa: OSN Sports Cricket HD. South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport 2.Australia: Fox Sports 3. Hong Kong and Singapore: Star Cricket. Malaysia: Astro Cricket HD, West Indies: ESPN.
