West Indies vs England 3rd Test Fantasy Preview

Not many would’ve expected such a result at the end of two Test matches. West Indies leading 2-0 against England, one of the better teams in world cricket at the moment. However, things could be slightly different for the hosts in the 3rd and final Test as the most inspiring captain Jason Holder has been banned for the final game, due to a slow over rate.

Nonetheless, this has been inspiring stuff from Windies so far, and they will carry the confidence of this series win into the 3rd Test which takes place at the Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia. Very rarely do you get to see Windies winning international series in recent times, unless they’re playing sides like Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, or competing in World Cup qualifiers like they had to last year.

Match info

Tournament: England tour of West Indies 2019
Date: 9th February 2019, 7:30pm IST
Venue: Daren Sammy Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia
Capacity: 12,400+
Series status: West Indies lead 3-match series 2-0

Form (recent first)

West Indies W W L L L
England L L W W W

Stats

Kemar Roach is Windies leading wicket-taker with 13 wickets
Ben Stokes is England’s leading wicket taker with 8 wickets
Jason Holder is Windies leading run scorer with 229 runs
Jonny Bairstow is England’s leading run scorer with 108 runs

New skipper – Kraigg Brathwaite

Holder scored 229 runs and picked up 7 wickets in these two games, so he will be missed dearly in the final game. As for Kraigg Brathwaite, who has been promoted to lead the side, he only has a couple of forties to his name so far. He will be looking to convert and put up a big score here, leading by example.

The stats above is a huge indicator of how important Holder has been to the team, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can go ahead and get a win without him. In his absence, Windies has the option of Oshane Thomas, to boost an already threatening bowling attack. However, they have called in all-rounder Keemo Paul as a replacement and it’s likely he will get the nod, just to maintain the balance of the side.

England

Stokes, Foakes, Woakes – England Cricket, what is this hoax? None of these three have been able to live up to expectations and Ben Foakes is all set to be replaced in this game by Keaton Jennings. A hard working batsman, Jennings will have to adjust his game and weather the new-ball storm. Another major worry is Ben Stokes, given he has a heel injury to worry about.

If Stokes isn’t fit, there will be one spot up for grabs. Mark Wood has been added to the squad as a probable replacement for Sam Curran, but if Stokes isn’t declared fit, Curran may get another game, just for that added batting protection. While Windies have 6, England just have 2 batsmen who have scored 100+ runs this series.