Proud England aiming to avoid WI whitewash

ONLY pride will be at stake for England’s cricketers when they take to the field in St Lucia this afternoon following heavy defeats in the opening two tests of their three-test series in the West Indies.

Coach Trevor Bayliss called a crisis meeting after another tame batting performance in Antigua last week. His team posed some questions to the players and addressed the performance the next day, with some quarters citing their attacking style as the reason for losing cheap wickets.

One ray of light for Joe Root’s side is the ban issued to Windies captain Jason Holder for a slow over rate in the 10-wicket victory in Antigua.

He took four wickets in that game and his unbeaten 202 in the first test in Barbados helped the Windies to a 381-run victory.

Without his influential presence, England will be desperate to salvage something from this tour with a World Cup and an Ashes series to focus on this summer. England are 4-5 to restore a little pride with a win and West Indies are 13-8 to land a first series whitewash against England since

1986, while the draw is just 13-2 with potential rain in the forecast for each of the scheduled five days.

Root himself has had a disappointing tour so far, scoring

just 40 runs in PEARSON’S four innings, but he is

11-4 to top score in the first innings in St Lucia. Jimmy Anderson is 9-4 to be top wicket-taker in the first innings after his five-wicket haul in the opening test, while Stuart Broad – restored to the line-up in Antigua after missing out in Barbados – is

12-5.

Ben Foakes and Chris Woakes are doubts for this final test, so enforced changes could see Mark Wood introduced to add some pace to the bowling attack, with Johnny Bairstow back behind the stumps.

Despite England’s poor form in the Caribbean, they are still 8-11 to triumph in the Ashes series in August and September, which will be Bayliss’ swansong as coach.

The Aussies are 19-10 and a tied series 11-2.