UAE bat, Athanaze debuts as WI ring in the changes

Innings break

Current RR: 5.08

 • Last 5 ov (RR): 16/4 (3.20)

UAE also made several changes, handing debuts to Ethan D'Souza and Muhammad Jawadullah

Toss: UAE opted to bat vs West Indies

UAE won the toss and opted to take first strike in the third ODI in Sharjah in their quest to avert a 3-0 sweep.

Having already wrapped up the series, West Indies made a number of changes, including resting their designated captain Shai Hope. Allrounder Roston Chase took charge of the side while Johnson Charles was listed as West Indies' wicketkeeper in the absence of Hope. Opening batter and vice-captain Brandon King was also rested, with the highly-rated Alick Athanaze making his international debut for West Indies.

Athanaze was the leading run-getter at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, ahead of Shubman Gill. But early in his domestic career he was dropped by Windward Islands. That snub fuelled him to work even harder to become one of the mainstays of Windward Islands' batting and the captain of the team. In the Super50 Cup, West Indies' 50-over domestic tournament, Athanaze was Windward Islands' top scorer, with 292 runs in six innings at an average of 48.66 and strike rate of 96.05, and sixth-highest overall.

Allrounders Dominic Drakes and Odean Smith made way for Kevin Sinclair and Keemo Paul. Sinclair will be West Indies' fourth spin-bowling option alongside Kevem Hodge, Yannic Cariah and stand-in captain Chase.

UAE also made a surfeit of changes, with Ethan D'Souza and Muhammad Jawadullah making their ODI debuts. D'Souza had represented Team Abu Dhabi in the T10 league last year while Jawadullah had more recently played for Sharjah Warriors in the ILT20. Aryansh Sharma, Asif Khan, Basil Hameed, Sanchit Sharma, Adhitya Shetty and Zahoor Khan all dropped out of the team.

Legspinner Karthik Meiyappan, though, returned to the XI after leaking 55 runs in 4.2 overs in the series opener while vice-captain Vriitya Aravind took back the wicketkeeping gloves from Aryansh.

UAE: 1 Muhammad Waseem (capt), 2 Lovepreet Singh, 3 Vriitya Aravind (wk), 4 Rameez Shahzad, 5 Ethan DSouza, 6 Rohan Mustafa, 7 Ali Naseer, 8 Aayan Afzal Khan, 9 Karthik Meiyappan, 10 Junaid Siddique, 11 Mohammad Jawadullah

West Indies: 1 Alick Athanaze, 2 Johnson Charles (wk), 3 Shamarh Brooks, 4 Raymon Reifer, 5 Keacy Carty, 6 Kavem Hodge, 7 Roston Chase (capt), 8 Yannic Cariah, 9 Kevin Sinclair, 10 Akeem Jordan, 11 Keemo Paul

Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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