MI Emirates will open their International League T20 campaign against Sharjah Warriors at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Both teams will be looking to make a winning start in the inaugural edition of the tournament.

West Indies veterans like Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard will turn up for the MI Emirates, with the latter leading the team. Pollard will also have the company of players like Nicholas Pooran, Imran Tahir, and Trent Boult. Thus, the MI Emirates have a lot of quality as well as experience in their squad and Pollard will look to make the most of it.

On the other hand, Moeen Ali will lead Sharjah Warriors. The Warriors have players like Joe Denly, Dawid Malan, Marcus Stoinis, Chris Woakes, Mohammad Nabi, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. However, the Warriors lack experience in their bowling unit, the void which Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali will look to fill in for the Sharjah Warriors.

There is a lot of T20 experience in both teams’ units and it will be interesting to note who will hold the advantage in the second game of the tournament.

Match Prediction: It is expected to be a tight match between these two teams but the Sharjah Warriors will start as slight favorites against the MI Emirates.

MI Emirates squad: Kieron Pollard (c), Dwayne Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Trent Boult, Andre Fletcher, Imran Tahir, Samit Patel, Will Smeed, Basil Hameed, Jordan Thompson, Najibullah Zadran, Zahir Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Brad Wheal, Bas de Leede, Muhammad Waseem, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Lorcan Tucker, Jonathan Figy. Coach: Shane Bond.

Sharjah Warriors squad: Moeen Ali (c), Dawid Malan, Evin Lewis, Mohammad Nabi, Chris Woakes, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen-ul-Haq, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Chris Benjamin, Danny Briggs, Mark Deyal, Bilal Khan, JJ Smit, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Jawadullah. Coach: Paul Farbrace.