West Indies face critical showdown with energised Zimbabwe

Powered by Sikandar Raza, the allrounder burning so bright that public health officials ought to be warning against looking straight at him, there is confidence, energy and belief among this Zimbabwean side

The World Cup is not nearly a week old and yet West Indies are in crisis mode. 

Defeat by Zimbabwe on Wednesday, coupled with a Scottish win over Ireland - which on recent form is far from unthinkable - would send the Windies out of the competition before half the teams involved have hit a ball in anger. 

For a side which has so much World Cup history, and whose players have been at the epicentre of the format's development over the past two decades, it would be a landmark moment. 

Phil Simmons, the head coach, is on increasingly unstable ground. Simmons is considered in some places to have been incredibly fortunate to keep his job following his side's capitalution in the UAE a year ago and, but for the lack of homegrown replacement options at the time, may well have been shown the door.

Twelve months later, alternatives are starting to present themselves - Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara among them.

A World Cup exit just four days into the tournament would not only leave Simmons drinking in the last chance saloon, but racking up a quite considerable tab.

^{Nicholas Pooran's West Indies need to beat Zimbabwe [Getty Images]}

The head coach can be relieved of some of the blame by noting that Caribbean cricket is once again in transition - Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, all T20 behemoths, are now retired, but management has to find the best way to blend one generation with another.

It is why the absences of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell over recent months, and the missed flight debacle which led to Shimron Hetmyer being dropped from West Indies' World Cup squad on the eve of the tournament, matter that bit more.

Because that experience, and extra quality, really matters in knockout cricket. 

Simmons, who repeatedly branded the Scotland loss as "unprofessional" in his post-match media rounds, now finds himself in a position where 40 overs of cricket may well define his future. 

With just 48 hours between matches, there is barely time to clear minds of their opening-game defeat, let alone learn from mistakes. West Indies have cancelled both their allocated practice session at the Bellerive Oval and in-person media conferences on Tuesday, opting instead to do everything remotely. 

THE BIG MATCH

Who: West Indies v Zimbabwe

Where: Bellerive Oval, Hobart

When: Wednesday, October 19 (7pm local, 9am BST)

Prediction: West Indies

Read what you will into that, but it all adds up to less than ideal preparation for such a critical encounter. 

Zimbabwe, meanwhile, are the side West Indies would have least wanted to come up against in a situation such as this.

Powered by Sikandar Raza, the allrounder burning so bright that public health officials ought to be warning against looking straight at him, there is confidence, energy and belief among this Zimbabwean side. 

They have won eight of their past T20 internationals, they beat Australia in an ODI in Australia very recently, and they are playing good, joined-up, intelligent cricket.

All that combined represents a considerable hurdle for West Indies, who by comparison are the tired filly lolloping up to Becher's Brook.

^{Sikandar Raza is Zimbabwe's key player [AFP via Getty Images]}

Of their 20 international matches in all formats over the past three months, they've won just four. Of the T20Is in that time, they have won three of 12. 

One more mis-step and everything could very easily collapse into an ugly pile. 

What are the reasons for optimism in the West Indies camp, then? Well, Zimbabwe's bowling strength is in their seam department, which the power-packed Windies top order will fancy considerably more. But if a side is capable of imploding against Mark Watt and Michael Leask, they are equally capable of imploding against Raza (Zimbabwe's leading wicket-taker in T20I cricket in 2022 with 16 victims), Luke Jongwe (joint second with 15) and Ryan Burl (fourth with 11).

Remove Raza cheaply, and Zimbabwe will be faced with a challenge which has rarely surfaced over their excellent run - their star batsman is averaging above 60 in T20Is since July.

Yet where Raza is most vulnerable, or at least where he is least prolific, West Indies have little firepower. Raza is seriously strong against seam, but much less effective against spin. While the Windies have Akeal Hosein in their arsenal, a left-arm spinner who will turn the ball away from Raza, their second "frontline" option is Yannic Cariah, who until his selection for this squad had not played T20 cricket in six years.

Cariah will surely be needed in this clash, to bolster West Indies chances against one of world cricket's most electrifying short-format commodities (if not now, when?). It could be a fascinating exchange. 

With the Hobart weather forecast really quite miserable towards the end of the week, and the prospect of washouts increasing, this match takes on yet more importance.

West Indies' World Cup campaign is still alive, but for how long?

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