England have won the toss and will bowl first
They love chasing, and there’s a bit of rain around as well. Jason Holder said he would have bowled first.
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Preamble
Stop it. Close the Twitter browser. Stop eating the spiced butternut, roasted pepper & apricot tagine with couscous, smashed avocado and toasted pitta. Stop whatever it is you’re doing for a couple of minutes so that you can smell some roses and give thanks for this England one-day team.
They are the gift that keeps on biffing, a team that sets and chases unimaginable targets with a swagger and a smile. Their record run-chase on Wednesday, even allowing for West Indies’ comedy performance in the field, was quite the statement of intent at the start of World Cup year. Whether they win the tournament this summer or not, we will eventually look back on 2015-19 and realise how lucky we were.
They are not a perfect team. They conceded 360 the other day, and when the batsmen are bad, they are as shambolic as any of the England ODI teams of the past. But they are the best team in the world, and it’s so much fun to be an England fan right now. We are renewed; we are aglow. It’s obvious to say we’ve never had it so good. We may also never have it so good.
Today, England face West Indies in the second ODI in Barbados, the same ground where 724 runs were scored on Wednesday. A different pitch will be used for this game, though a similar festival of biffoonery is expected. We’ll have the toss and teams at 10.30am local time, 2.30pm GMT.
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