West Indies bowl in decider, changes on both sides

Toss West Indies chose to bowl vs England

Shai Hope chose to bowl after winning the toss at Kensington Oval, with West Indies and England both eyeing a rare ODI series win in the deciding third match. The sides made two changes apiece, with West Indies bringing in Romario Shepherd and Alzarri Joseph for Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph.

“We’re not sure what we’re going to get,” Hope said of the playing surface at his home ground. “Got to assess the conditions as a bowling group and put them under pressure.”

For England, Reece Topley and Jamie Overton replaced John Turner and Saqib Mahmood. Overton has been playing as a specialist batter since returning from a back stress fracture but was seen marking out his run-up before the toss.

Liam Livingstone, England’s captain, said he would have opted to bowl, too. “We’ll see what the pitch has to offer, hopefully it gets slower as the day goes on,” he said.

West Indies took a 1-0 lead after sweeping to victory in a rain-affected first ODI in Antigua, before England chased down 329 at the same ground two days later.

Neither side has played much bilateral ODI cricket in the last 12 months. West Indies beat England 2-1 when they toured in December, but series losses in Australia and Sri Lanka have limited their attempts to climb the rankings in pursuit of automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup.

England’s last series win, meanwhile, came against Ireland in September 2023.

West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Keacy Carty, 4 Shai Hope (capt & wk), 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Roston Chase, 8 Romario Shepherd, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Gudakesh Motie, 11 Matthew Forde

England: 1 Phil Salt (wk), 2 Will Jacks, 3 Jordan Cox, 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Liam Livingstone (capt), 6 Dan Mousley, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Reece Topley

Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick