WEST INDIES NEXT
The England Cricket Team will take on West Indies in the first match of the One Day International series at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua on Friday.
Stuart Broad would be captaining the Three Lions in the match and he would like to get his team off to a winning start.
It’s only a 3-match series. So, losing the first game means you are under huge amount of pressure going into the next two and no team would want to be in that situation.
So, both the teams would go hard at each other in Friday’s game and thus, it’s likely to be one heck of a contest.
The stadium might not be totally full and the reason behind that is the absence of the West Indies superstar Chris Gayle who injured himself again while playing against Ireland last week. However, a decent number of people are expected to turn up.
On the place of Gayle, it’s Dwayne Smith who will open for West Indies. He is also a very attacking batsman, but, not as much as the Jamaican left hander.
As far as England is concerned, it would be interesting to see the composition of their top order. They are without Alastair Cook and Ian Bell. So, they will have to go with an entirely new and inexperienced opening pair.
England does have some experience in the middle and lower order though with Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara there.
It will also be a test of the captaincy skills of Stuart Broad. He has captained England in the T20s, but, that’s a different format.
The Antigua pitch has helped the slower bowlers in most of the matches so far and it probably would behave in the same manner this time around as well.