Sports

West Indies bat first in opening England ODI

Fresh from an upset 2-1 triumph in the Wisden Trophy Test series against the same opponents, West Indies are giving ODI debuts at Kensington Oval to opener John Campbell, who had a moderately successful first Test series against the English, and hard-hitting batsman Nicholas Pooran.

By AFP
February 20, 2019

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and chose to bat first against England in the day/night first one-day international of their five-match series in Barbados on Wednesday.

Fresh from an upset 2-1 triumph in the Wisden Trophy Test series against the same opponents, West Indies are giving ODI debuts at Kensington Oval to opener John Campbell, who had a moderately successful first Test series against the English, and hard-hitting batsman Nicholas Pooran.

Pooran had previously only represented the region at senior level in T20 Internationals.

As in the Test series, England start as favourites, more so given their number one ranking as the countdown to their hosting of the 2019 World Cup continues.

They have made one expected change from the team which won the warm-match on Sunday comfortably, Jos Buttler coming for Alex Hales.

Teams: West Indies - Jason Holder (captain), Chris Gayle, John Campbell, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Devendra Bishoo, Oshane Thomas.

England - Eoin Morgan (captain), Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.

Umpires: Leslie Reifer (BAR), Paul Wilson (AUS)

Match Referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)