West Indies, England go into T20Is with all eyes on CWC 2019

Overview West Indies v England ****1st T20I
Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Tuesday, 5 March; 4:00pm local, 8:00pm GMT

The change in format does little to take away from the bigger picture. With 86 days left for the event, it’s all about the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 now.

England have already reinforced that by resting Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, their two gun players, with an eye on their workload ahead of the big event. West Indies have done it by naming Jason Holder the captain, ahead of regular captain Carlos Brathwaite, to give the ODI squad more time together.

The one-day squad will remain together for the entire three-match series, and the management has said that Brathwaite’s long-term future as captain is secure.

West Indies have just come off holding England to a draw in a competitive five-match ODI series. However, they will miss Andre Russell, who was brought in from the Pakistan Super League for the final two ODIs, but subsequently suffered a knee injury that could keep him out of the World Cup.

England without Stokes and Buttler are a diminished force. Moeen Ali has also been rested, while Jason Roy has flown back home for the birth of his child, and there are doubts surrounding Liam Plunkett’s fitness. England have a deep pool of resources and this will be a test of that depth. How England’s reserves, such as Dawid Malan, David Willey, Chris Jordan, and the Curran brothers, Tom and Sam, fare will make for an important subplot.

Not all of them could find a place when England return to full strength for the World Cup. Nevertheless, it’s a chance for each of these players to press a case for selection and give team management a wider pool to choose from.

West Indies are the reigning world champions in this format. England are the favourites to become world champions in the 50-over format. After a run glut in the ODIs, will the T20Is provide more of the same? And what of the result? They could either inject much-needed confidence or pose new headaches ahead of a world event in a totally different format in totally different conditions. That’s a tricky proposition.

Key players Chris Gayle (West Indies): Over 350 T20 games. Twenty-one hundreds in them. And 424 runs in four preceding ODIs at a very T20 strike-rate of 134.17. Enough said.

**Alex Hales (England):**In the absence of regular opening partner Roy, the onus is on Hales to power England through the Powerplay. Hales is capable, destructive, and has experience on hand. He also has 384 runs in 10 matches against West Indies, averaging close to 43, which is pretty handy.

ConditionsThe Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium has an average of 303 runs scored per international T20 game and 7.84 runs scored per over. So that means a total of around 150-160. That is further reinforced by the scores in the last three innings at the ground: 150, 153 and 150. There are some showers expected at 5pm local time, which would be an hour into the match, and then again at 8pm, by when the game should be over if there are no interruptions.

Squads

West Indies: Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Devendra Bishoo, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, John Campbell, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell, Oshane Thomas

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Sam Billings, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, David Willey, Mark Wood