Here are the teams:
West Indies: Gayle, Pooran, Hope (wk), Bravo, Hetmyer, Brathwaite, Holder (c), Nurse, Allen, Cottrell, Thomas.
England: Hales, Bairstow (wk), Root, Morgan (c), Denly, Billings, Willey, T Curran, Plunkett, Jordan, Rashid.
Jason Holder looks relaxed about the prospect of batting first.
I think it’s a good strip. The form the batsmen are carrying, we expect a really good challenge from them. The guys are really up for this challenge.
Campbell and Bishoo are out; Fabian Allen comes in.
England win the toss and will bowl
Wood rests, Dawid Malan and Sam Curran are out. So Bairstow and Hales will open the batting.
Hello world!
Given the entertainment provided by the Test series and the utter mayhem witnessed in (most of) the ODIs, we can fairly safely assume that this is going to be a wildly entertaining freewheeling humdinger, or something of the sort. The game will be played at the same ground, and probably on the same track, where England were skittled for 113 in the final ODI a few days ago, which is also encouraging, particularly if you’re a West Indian bowler. So settle down, strap yourself in and get ready for the ride of your life, or at the very least of your Tuesday afternoon/evening/whatever.
England will be without the rested Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, the baby-birth-attending Jason Roy and the injured Liam Plunkett, with Mark Wood also a potential absentee. West Indies are expected to stick with a team very much like the one that performed so admirably in the ODI series.
Let’s start with a preview from Ian Prince in St Lucia:
Updated