BARBADOS: England made a solid start to their tour of the Caribbean on Tuesday during the first day of their first two-day warm-up match against a President’s XI at the Three W’s Oval here.
After an agreement prior to the game that the visitors would bat the whole of the first day regardless of how many wickets fell, they scored 310 runs for the loss of 10 wickets, a satisfactory outing on a sluggish pitch. England will bowl for all of day two.
Captain Joe Root and Ben Stokes were the bright spots of the first day with a half-century apiece while there was a decent contribution from Surrey opener Rory Burns who spent more than two hours at the crease in making 35. Late on, Chris Woakes chipped in with a useful innings too as he batted for the final half hour with Keaton Jennings, who returned to the crease for his second innings of the day after being dismissed cheaply early on.
England left out Jos Buttler from their 12-man team for this match - he will play in the second two-day game beginning on Thursday - and included Jack Leach ahead of leg-spinner Adil Rashid while all-rounders Woakes and Sam Curran were both included and will fight it out with the ball to press their claim for the third seamer position for the first Test which begins at the Kensington Oval next Wednesday.
Although the runs for Root and Stokes were welcome, particularly for the former after his tough time for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash recently, it was the innings of Burns which could be the more important long-term. The left-hander made his Test debut on the tour of Sri Lanka before Christmas and although he played nicely at times in that series, he has yet to produce the big score which would allow him to feel truly settled in the team.
Because of that, this tour is a big one for Burns and, despite a hundred in the Sri Lankan series, for Jennings too as they look to become England’s settled opening partnership following the retirement of Alastair Cook last summer.
Another plus point is that England faced Alzarri Joseph who was named in the West Indies’ squad for the first Test. Joseph, just 22, has pace but is returning from a stress fracture of the back. His last Test was against England at Edgbaston in 2017 - he looked somewhat out of his depth in that match - and it remains to be seen whether he is recalled to the final XI at Kensington Oval.
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