West Indies' Chris Gayle, New Zealand's Jacob Oram. - File

Fresh from their 2-0 Twenty20 series win over New Zealand in Florida, USA, last weekend the West Indies will tomorrow seek to make a winning start when they face the same opponent in the first of five one-day Internationals at Sabina Park.

The match, which is slated to get under way 9:30.a.m., will see the West Indies, currently ranked at number eight in the world based on the ICC one-day international rankings, trying to improve their position against the Kiwis, who are ranked one spot above them.

Leading the way for the West Indies will be prolific opener Chris Gayle, the in-form Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul and off-spinner Sunil Narine.

Gayle, who after a one year absence made a return to the team last month, was named Man of the Series for the Twenty20s after scores of 85 not out and 53, and playing at home will be looking to continue his one-day career back on track after making 53 in alone appearance in England.

"We bounced back with two wins last weekend against New Zealand so hopefully, now we are back home, we can expect a very good start to the series and kick on from there," West Indies vice-captain Dwayne Bravo said yesterday.

"We don't mind if we win by one run or 100 runs, the most important thing is that we go out and have a good series and win," he declared.

The West Indies lost their recent three-match series against England 2-0 with the third and final match being abandoned due to rain but did show some fight with Bravo, Smith and Pollard all got totals over 30, but failing to carry on.

Bravo scored 77 and Pollard 41 in the second match while Smith and Samuels netted 56 and 30, respectively, in the first match.

Rampaul, meanwhile, had inconsistent returns in England, but with Tino Best in the 13-man squad as the only other specialist fast bowler he is expected to spearhead the team's attack with captain Darren Sammy, and all-rounder Andre Russell expected to provide capable assistance.

Narine bounced back to good form in Florida after a below par performance in England, and he will be looking to maintain his grip on the New Zealand batsmen after taking four for 12 in the second game and three for 24 in the first.

biggest loss

West Indies batsmen Dwayne Smith (left) and Lendl Simmons.

New Zealand have been hit hard by injuries. Their biggest loss is inspirational captain Ross Taylor. Taylor suffered a shoulder injury in the first match of the Twenty20 series and is expected to be out for at least two weeks.

In top order batsman Martin Guptill, the returning Jacob Oram, who also got injured in the Twenty20 series, Nathan McCallum, and Tim Southee, they have players who can come good on a given day, which could make life difficult for the West Indies.

"We see the series as an opportunity to right the wrongs that happened in Miami, and that is what we plan to do," Guptill told the media yesterday.

"We had a team meeting with the management today whereby we looked at what went wrong in the Twenty20 series, and there was a clarification of each player's role and responsibilities.

"You can therefore look forward to the team, which prior to the T20s had a close to a three-month break from cricket, growing from strength to strength as the tour goes on," he added.

Squads

West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Tino Best, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, André Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons and Dwayne Smith.

New Zealand: Ross Taylor (captain), Martin Guptill, Doug Bracewell, Dean Brownlie, Andrew Ellis, Daniel Flynn, Ronnie Hira, Tom Latham, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Rob Nicol, Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.