England To Face West Indies In Final Test At Edgbaston, Birmingham Starting Today
In Cricket, hosts England will be up against West Indies in the third and final Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham starting today. The match will commence at 3:30 PM IST.
England have the upper hand in the series with a 2-0 unassailable lead after registering impressive wins at the Lord’s and Trent Bridge respectively. The hosts have announced an unchanged XI for the match.
After two comprehensive victories, England would look to prolong West Indies’ misery on this tour in their bid for a 3-0 series sweep as the two teams head into the third, and final, bout starting Friday at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
Across their two defeats and four batting innings on this England trip, only once have West Indies looked in the game. That’s when a brilliant rearguard act from Kavem Hodge, who notched up a fine maiden century, and near similar 82 each from Alick Athanaze and Joshua da Silva, that helped the visitors to a slender lead of 41 in their first innings at Trent Bridge. However, what preceded and succeeded that batting show was woeful. Set a target of 385 in the second Test, the openers put on their second successive 50+ stand for the first time in the series, but the rather dramatic collapse from 61/0 to 143 all out meant West Indies had squandered their best shot of squaring the series.
The batting was a total letdown at Lord’s as well, where the tourists failed to cross 150 in both innings to concede the first Test by an innings and 114 runs. While the West Indies bowlers have shown flair in pockets, the batting overall has left much to be desired making it rather easy for the home team. Their monumental effort of 457 in Nottingham proved that, with their backs to the wall, West Indies can put up a stiff fight. Nothing short of an encore would suffice, against an on-the-roll England, if the visitors were to save themselves the embarrassment of a whitewash.
For England, the Bazball ver 2.0 has been a success thus far. Zak Crawley’s twin failures in Trent Bridge notwithstanding, the batting had clicked like a well-oiled machine. Even their least impressive effort of 371 in the Game 1 was enough to bowl out West Indies twice.
Life after James Anderson hasn’t been too different yet, either, despite the lack of equal competition. Mark Wood, who came into the XI after Anderson’s retirement, would count himself unlucky to not have more wickets to his name than the three across two innings, but his fiery spells have tested West Indies aplenty. The star of the victory though was the 20-year-old Shoaib Bashir, who returned a match haul of 7-149 which included a second-innings fifer that triggered an epic collapse.
Given their form, the possibility of 3-0 isn’t too far-fetched and England will go in as favourites. Batting turnaround is what West Indies seek to make a game of it.
Squads:
England Squad: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir, Daniel Lawrence, Matthew Potts, Dillon Pennington
West Indies Squad: Kraigg Brathwaite(c), Mikyle Louis, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Jason Holder, Joshua Da Silva(w), Kevin Sinclair, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph, Gudakesh Motie, Zachary McCaskie, Tevin Imlach, Akeem Jordan
