Ahead of their Test tour of New Zealand next month, England begin a lengthy white ball tour of the Caribbean on Thursday when they go up against West Indies in the first of a three match ODI series with the opener coming from Antigua.
England will be looking to use this as a chance for some fringe players to stake a claim for a spot in their Champions Trophy squad next year while for West Indies this will be all about continuing their rebuild for when their next global opportunity comes along.
West Indies
It isn’t just England who are being very active at the minute, West Indies go into this series a matter of days after completing an ODI series in Sri Lanka, one which they lost 2-1 but did enjoy the confidence boost of winning the final game. Back in home conditions, West Indies will be looking to continue what is actually a pretty decent record against England in this part of the world and we only have to go back to the end of last year for the last time West Indies won an ODI series against England.
Generally, West Indies bowl pretty well in their own conditions but when they come unstuck it is because they try to belt everything for six or lose wickets being too aggressive early in the innings and then lack the patience and the ability to resurrect a period that has gone wrong. It will be interesting to see how they go about things with the bat here, particularly with this being a fairly inexperienced England bowling unit at this level of the game.
England
This was never going to be a tour where England were going to be at full strength with it coming in between Test tours to Pakistan, which concluded as recently as the weekend, and New Zealand, which gets underway a matter of days after this series finishes. The multi-format players that they have were always going to be saved for the Test stuff as with The Ashes beginning to loom in the distance that is where the priority lies, although you would like to think they will want to do well in the Champions Trophy in this format in the meantime.
The other thing that highlights where the England priority lies is that Brendon McCullum, the new white ball coach, doesn’t take over the white ball setup until 2025 so it will be interim coaches on show for England here as well as a stand-in captain. There could be a number of debutants for England over the course of this series and the T20s that follow but everyone who will be on show will be looking to prove that they are worthy of a spot in the Champions Trophy squad, so there is an incentive here.
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Team News
West Indies have added Shimron Hetmyer to their squad from the one which they took to Sri Lanka with them and he is expected to come into the middle order, potentially in place of Jewel Andrew. Romario Shepherd could also get the opening game of the series.
England will be led by Liam Livingstone for this series and it looks like they will resist the Salt and Pepper partnership at the top of the order with Will Jacks likely to partner Phil Salt. Jacob Bethell is expected to feature in the middle order while Jordan Cox and Dan Mousley are among those who could debut.
Betting
My initial thought going into this series was to look towards the player performances of Liam Livingstone and the longer the tour goes on I would be surprised if I don’t head in that direction at some point but I can’t ignore the 13/10 on a home win here. Livingstone is really the only senior player in the England middle order and ultimately his first captaincy of his country could be leading a side whose top six have a combined 71 caps between them and a seven and eight where the former in Sam Curran plays a first ODI in almost 11 months and Jamie Overton for whom this is an ODI debut if selected.
That feels like a lot of inexperienced players to ask to deliver the goods and if West Indies can get some early pressure on England with the ball you wouldn’t be completely surprised were the English innings to capsize very quickly. England are more experienced with the ball but even then we have seen that they can go around the park and with the likes of Evin Lewis in good touch after his ton in Sri Lanka last week and Shimron Hetmyer strengthening the middle order the home side might just be overpriced here against an opponent they are always up for playing against.
Tips
Back West Indies to win 1st ODI for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with 888sport
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