West Indies vs USA Prediction: USA struggles continues

In the third round of matches for the ICC World Cup Qualification, West Indies and the United States of America will compete against one another at the Takashinga Cricket Club. West Indies have started the tournament with a pair of victories, and while they will want to build on their success, the USA side will try to break their winless streak. 

Even though there are only five places between these two teams in the ICC's ODI rankings, it goes without saying that the West Indies expect this match to be a full mismatch. The West Indies, led by their new coach, Daren Sammy, beat the United Arab Emirates three times in Sharjah earlier this month. West Indian cricket has been in the dumps for so long that this is their second straight appearance at an ODI World Cup Qualifier, five years after they won eight out of ten games in the 2018 version in Zimbabwe, losing twice to Afghanistan. However, they have a nearly perfect 24-1 record in ODIs against current associate nations, which should help them against the USA, Netherlands, and Nepal in Group A. In their recent win over the UAE, 34-year-old opening batter Johnson Charles scored a half-century, which was a good sign. Since then, he has been added to the team in place of hurt spin bowler Gudakesh Motie. Seven of their 15-person team played in the IPL, including Nicholas Pooran, Jason Holder, and Alzarri Joseph.

This is the first of three World Cup Qualifier (WCQ) games that the USA will play in a row at the Takashinga Sports Club in southern Harare. Four years after getting back into ODIs by joining the second-tier World Cup Super League 2, the United States will enter the final stage of ODI World Cup qualifiers for the first time since 2005. This time, they will do so with a team that is both younger and more experienced. They are the biggest underdogs in this tournament because they placed fifth in League 2 (behind the top three teams, Scotland, Oman, and Nepal) and had to play a secondary play-off with the United Arab Emirates to get here. Because of the now-defunct Super League, the USA has played in more than 40 ODIs in the past four years, and they have won just a bit more than half of those games against partner teams. If they want to get to the Super Six stage, they will have to beat the West Indies, the host country, Zimbabwe, and maybe even Sri Lanka and Ireland, which will be very hard to do.

Ali Khan, a star bowler who has played in the PSL, CPL, and Abu Dhabi T10 in the past few years, was suspended for two games for breaking the Code of Conduct. LanHolland, an all-round bowler who had 19 ODI wickets at a rate of 4.45 rpo, was not let out of his deal with Hampshire and is also missing. Aside from that, not much has changed because the rest of the team that won the play-off to get into this qualifier was on the trip to Harare.

The United States national team is just now getting their bearings, and it is quite evident that this squad has a great deal of ground to cover before reaching the top level. In the meantime, the West Indies have gotten off to strong beginnings in this qualification, and I anticipate that they will perform to the best of their abilities here. While it is obvious that West Indies have a more powerful and better lineup, I anticipate that they will win the toss.