Deadline: June 14, 2019 at 3 PM IST
Venue: The Rose Bowl, Southampton
Pitch and conditions
Rain has got 6 points in 3 matches already, and one of its victories came at Southampton on Monday. If you look at the weather forecast for Thursday, you might get disappointed. If it gives you any consolation, it is going to be an on-and-off start – if not a washout.
There will enough swing for the bowlers. Add as many pacers in your fantasy cricket team.
Injury update
Jos Buttler suffered a heavy bruising on his right hip during England’s comprehensive win over Bangladesh last week. Jonny Bairstow is likely to keep the wickets, like he did after Buttler refused to take the field.
Andre Russell missed the last match due to injury. The call on his participation will be taken on the morning of the match.
Probable XI for England: Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid/Mark Wood
Probable XI for West Indies: Chris Gayle, Shai Hope (wk), Darren Bravo, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder (c), Carlos Brathwaite/Andre Russell, Ashley Nurse, Oshane Thomas, Sheldon Cottrell, Kemar Roach
Numbers favour England
Since their defeat in the 1979 edition, England have never lost to West Indies. To further glorify them, they have won all their games against West Indies at home since 2007. The result does not change at Southampton either. All numbers favour England.
However, West Indies will draw confidence from their recent ODI series against England at home, having levelled it 2-2. Chris Gayle, the self-proclaimed Universe Boss, smashed 424 runs including 2 hundreds and as many fifties.
Meanwhile, despite going for runs, pacers Jason Holder and Sheldon Cottrell had their share of fun, sniping up 7 wickets each.
Archer vs West Indies
Jofra Archer is fast, so much so that the ball kissed the top of off-stump and ricocheted straight over the boundary line. Soumya Sarkar was left clueless. At the receiving end this time will be West Indies, the team Archer once dreamed of playing for. He did play for them at the U-19 level, but England set eyes on him and he is playing World Cup for them 4 years before than he thought. There will be 12 West Indians on the field and one of them will play for the home team.
West Indies’ pace battery vs England’s batting power
Jason Holder has been lucky at the toss. He has been calling it right and choosing to bowl first. The conditions are such that his bowlers reap rewards. They bounced out Pakistan, rattled Australia but later let them off the hook, and had South Africa in trouble before rain played spoilsport. On Friday, they will be up against the mightiest batting team. You name them, you get them: Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan, Buttler, and Stokes. In fact, this will be West Indian pacers’ real test. If they pass this one, their claim to lift the trophy will get louder. With 11 wickets between them, Oshane Thomas and Sheldon Cottrell have done the bulk of the damage and will be expected to go all guns blazing against the Englishmen.
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