Alex Lees will begin with Zak Crawley in his first Test match.
England revealed their 12-player team for their first Test against the West Indies on Monday (March 7), which begins on Tuesday at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. Because this is England’s first Test match after their terrible 0-4 Ashes campaign, Joe Root’s side will be looking to make a statement. Notably, the national selectors have made some significant decisions for this series, with experienced pacers James Anderson and Stuart Broad being dropped.
At number three, Joe Root will bat.
Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed, two underperforming openers, were also cut. Alex Lees, who has been called up to the team for the first Test, will begin with Zak Crawley. The 28-year-old, a prolific run-scorer for Durham, had a good practise match against the West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI, hitting 65 and 10 runs in two innings. Crawley would be eager to make an impression after scoring 62 and 34 points in the encounter.
Joe Root, the captain, will bat at number three and will be under pressure to make his bat speak. Dan Lawrence has beaten Ollie Pope to the number four spot with scores of 83 and 48 in the warm-up game. Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, and Ben Foakes will be his teammates. Notably, Bairstow will bat as a specialist, while Foakes will take over as wicketkeeper.
Meanwhile, the Three Lions have been dealt a severe setback with the withdrawal of Ollie Robinson from the first Test. Robinson hasn’t recovered from a back spasm he had in the warm-up match, according to the England Cricket Board (ECB). In the meantime, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, and Craig Overton are all expected to start. Given the lack of a specialist spinner in the team, left-arm spinner Jack Leach will almost certainly edge out pacer Saqib Mahmood for the last slot.
Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes (wk), Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, and Mark Wood are the England team for the Test against West Indies.