Published: Mar 03, 2017, 06:00 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 04, 2017, 03:04 AM (IST)
Good morning to those in the Caribbean and good evening to the rest! Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog of the first of the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series between the hosts West Indies and England. The match is being played at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound in Antigua. I am Rohan Arun Sawant, and I will be bringing to you the live cricket updates from this tie. This will be the first-time after the ICC World T20 2016 final that both these teams will be pitted against each other. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD, West Indies vs England – 1st ODI
This series will act as an apt preparatory camp for England, who are gearing up for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2017. Under Eoin Morgan, England team has gone from being middle-ranked side to a goliath in the limited-overs format. With the likes of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jason Roy and Alex Hales, the visitors have an array of specialist players who are helping England to turn into one of the most dangerous limited-overs teams on the block.
England roped in Tom Curran as a backup replacement for Jake Ball, who suffered a knee injury in the warm up ties. England, as a batting side has improved leaps and bounds but their bowling still remains a worry.
West Indies, on the other hand, are a team charged with all-rounders in the form of Jason Holder, Carlos Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter and Ashley Nurse. While the batting looks thin, it is undoubtedly promising with the likes of Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope and Evin Lewis in the ranks. This could very well be a make or break series for some of the West Indian players.
England lost their last ODI series by a narrow margin of 2-3 to India, whereas the West Indies had a torrid time in the Zimbabwe Tri-Nation series, winning only one out of the four games they competed in.
Ahead of this ODI series, England won both their warm-up games against WICB President XI and UWI VC XI. The second and the third ODIs will be played on March 5 and 9, at North Sound and Bridgetown respectively.
Squads:
England: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Eoin Morgan(c), Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Steven Finn, Tom Curran.
West Indies: Jason Holder(c), Carlos Brathwaite, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Kieran Powell, Rovman Powell.
