West Indies opener Brandon King believes his side is well placed to deliver a big first-innings total following an eventful opening day of the second test against Pakistan in Trinidad.
On a day interrupted by rain and bad light, the West Indies reached 239 for five at stumps in the second ICC World Test Championship contest at Queen's Park Oval, with in-form allrounder Justin Greaves (64*) and skipper Roston Chase (36*) unbeaten, with the duo having already contributed 66 runs for the sixth wicket.
The pair scored with relative ease after Pakistan enjoyed some joy with the ball after Chase won the toss and elected to bat first, with King scoring 46 at the top of the order for the hosts before he played around a straight delivery from Ali Usman.
The West Indies have made a decent start to the second #WTC27 Test against Pakistan šŖ
ā ICC (@ICC) August 2, 2026
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King hit nine fours during his 50-ball stay early in the day and the right-hander thinks his team is well placed to post a big first-innings total.
"We needed those partnerships at the end of the day and it was good to see those guys (Greaves, (Shai) Hope and Chase) making those contributions," King said at stumps.
"It would be nice if we get more of the same from them tomorrow and Justin and Roston can go on to get hundreds."
Earlier in the day, Pakistan made four changes to the playing XI that lost the opening test of the series by 90 runs to the West Indies, with former skipper Shan Masood among the omissions after he hurt his finger in that first fixture.
Babar Azam was quizzed by Ian Bishop at the toss about the absence of Abbas, and the Pakistan skipper suggested there was no injury concern for the 36-year-old and it was purely 'down to conditions' as to why he had been left out of the side.
The omission of Abbas saw young right-armer Ubaid Shah handed a debut in the second test and the 20-year-old was expensive (1-56 from nine overs) when picking up the sole wicket of Amir Jangoo for 26 on the opening day of the match.
PAKISTAN: Azan Awais, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Awais Zafar, Ali Usman, Sajid Khan, Mohammad Ali, Ubaid Shah
WEST INDIES: Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Brandon King, Kavem Hodge, Shai Hope (wk), Amir Jangoo, Justin Greaves, Roston Chase (capt), Jomel Warrican, Shamar Joseph, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales