West Indies vs ICC World XI T20 Prediction

Team News

Comprising players from around the world, the ICC Rest of the World XI was to be led by England's limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan. But a fractured finger has ruled him out of this match with Shahid Afridi taking over the captaincy. The squad now includes two players each from India (Dinesh Karthik and Mohammed Shami), Pakistan (Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik) and New Zealand (Luke Ronchi and Mitchell McClenaghan) and four from England (Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Tymal Mills and Adil Rashid). Ronchi could open the batting and is also expected to keep wickets. 

Young leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane from Nepal has also earned his place in the side owing to his impressive performance in the IPL. Shakib al Hasan and Hardik Pandya were initially part of the squad but while the former withdrew himself citing personal reasons, the latter has been ruled out with a viral illness. The team has added leg-spinner Adil Rashid and seam bowler Mohammed Shami in the squad as the respective replacements. Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi is recovering from a knee injury but has made clear that he will be playing despite the injury. Surprisingly, the ICC World XI squad does not feature any South African.

Key Players

Luke Ronchi will be a key figure with the bat for the ICC World XI. The New Zealand batsman had a brilliant PSL 2018 season where he emerged as the leading run-getter of the tournament and played a major role in helping his side Islamabad United to win the title. Sam Billings is a dangerous batsman in the 20-overs format. He will be familiar with the conditions and his role at the top will become even more important in the absence of Eoin Morgan. Dinesh Karthik was one of the most consistent batsmen in the IPL and he is going to be a vital cog in the middle order. 

Rashid Khan is the team's x-factor when it comes to bowling. The Afghan leg-spinner is ranked no. 1 on the ICC T20 rankings and he also finished as the second-best bowler in the IPL. Shahid Afridi has taken the most wickets at the Lord's in T20Is (7 wickets in 3 matches) and he could trouble the West Indian batsmen on this surface. Kiwi pacer Mitchell McClenaghan has an impressive strike rate of 19.67 and an average of 25.27 with the ball in this format.

Recent Form

The ICC World XI have won one and lost two out of the three T20 internationals they have played so far. All three of those games were played against Pakistan in Lahore in September 2017. After losing the first fixture of the three-match series by 20 runs, the World XI bounced back to register a seven-wicket win in the second game. They, however, went down in the final game by 33 runs to lose the series 1-2. They were very impressive with the bat in that series but their bowling was not up to the mark, having conceded over 170 in each of their matches.