NORTH SOUND – The West In­dies will look to cap­i­talise on their game three win against Sri Lan­ka in their last One Day In­ter­na­tion­al (ODI), this time they face an Eng­land side who are look­ing for a fresh start at the Sir Vi­vian Richards Sta­di­um in An­tigua on Thurs­day (Oc­to­ber 31) in the open­ing game of their three-match se­ries.

The West In­dies face an on­go­ing chal­lenge in adapt­ing their T20-ori­ent­ed mind­set to the ODI for­mat. Their re­cent tour of Sri Lan­ka high­light­ed this, with on­ly Sher­fane Ruther­ford of­fer­ing re­sis­tance in an oth­er­wise one-sided 2-1 se­ries loss.

Yet, the Caribbean team of­ten finds an­oth­er lev­el when host­ing Eng­land, es­pe­cial­ly at home venues where fans add a spe­cial en­er­gy.

Shai Hope re­mains the foun­da­tion of West In­dies’ bat­ting, but Ruther­ford’s im­prov­ing form brings op­ti­mism. The re­turn of Shim­ron Het­my­er boosts a bat­ting or­der com­ple­ment­ed by a bowl­ing line­up tai­lored for home con­di­tions.

Open­er Evin Lewis will be on the hunt for more runs af­ter scor­ing a cen­tu­ry in the fi­nal ODI against Sri Lan­ka, while his open­ing part­ner Bran­don King may find home con­di­tions more fa­vor­able to start putting some scores to­geth­er.

Ro­mario Shep­herd may find him­self back in­to the line to part­ner the likes of Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph and Gu­dakesh Motie.

The pitch con­di­tions could be a defin­ing fac­tor in this se­ries, and while West In­dies have more ex­pe­ri­ence, Eng­land’s young squad is un­pre­dictable enough to make this se­ries a tough to call.

Eng­land’s cap­tain Jos But­tler is miss­ing out due in­jury, and Liam Liv­ing­stone steps in as cap­tain for the first time.

This squad has a more es­tab­lished core than the ex­per­i­men­tal group that played against Aus­tralia, fea­tur­ing the re­turn of all-rounder Sam Cur­ran and the ex­cit­ing in­clu­sions of wrist spin­ners Re­han Ahmed and Jafer Chohan.

One of the more in­trigu­ing in­clu­sions is Michael-Kyle Pep­per, a dy­nam­ic bats­man known for his unique style, which he has demon­strat­ed in both the T20 Blast and The Hun­dred. Pep­per could open with Phil Salt, bring­ing a new di­men­sion to Eng­land’s top or­der.

With reg­u­lars Har­ry Brook and Jamie Smith rest­ed, this tour is a prime op­por­tu­ni­ty for fringe play­ers to make their case for fu­ture se­lec­tion, in­clud­ing Liv­ing­stone, who is ea­ger to so­lid­i­fy his ODI ca­reer.

CMC

Squads

West In­dies: Shai Hope (cap­tain/wick­et­keep­er), Evin Lewis, Bran­don King, Sher­fane Ruther­ford, Ros­ton Chase, Shim­ron Het­my­er, Ro­mario Shep­herd, Gu­dakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Hay­den Walsh, Jay­den Seales, Jew­el An­drew, Kea­cy Car­ty, Matthew Forde.

Eng­land: Liam Liv­ing­stone (cap­tain), Philip Salt (wick­et­keep­er), Michael-Kyle Pep­per, Will Jacks, Jor­dan Cox, Ja­cob Bethell, Dan Mous­ley, Sam Cur­ran, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Re­ece Top­ley, Jafer Chohan, Saqib Mah­mood, Jaime Over­ton, Re­han Ahmed, John Turn­er.