The second Test at Trent Bridge against England was won by West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite who elected to field after winning the toss on Thursday.
On a lightly-grassed pitch, sunny blue skies appeared ideal for batting.
But it was not strange that Brathwaite opted for that considering his team had been bowled out twice and lost in an innings by 114 runs to England in the first Test at Lord’s last week, scoring only 121 and 136.
“It looks like it’s going to be a good cricket wicket, but we’ll make do with what we have,” Brathwaite said as the West Indies looked to level the three-match series at 1-1.
“We could be much more controlled with the ball. That’s one thing we’ve discussed.”
“We have got to build partnerships while we bat and get no less than 300 runs in the first innings.”
Ben Stokes commented: “It would have been difficult if we had won it. What our plans were I will not say.”
Before the toss both sides had already revealed their playing XIs with England recalling fast bowler Mark Wood after veteran seamer James Anderson retired from international duty following the Lord’s Test with his tally of 704 Test wickets being an all-time record for any pace bowler in this format of cricket.
However, an unchanged West Indies side were compelled into making a late change when spinner Gudakesh Motie woke up ill on match day and withdrew.
Motie was a key player for the visitors; he was their top scorer during their visit to Lord’s where he also took most wickets on behalf of Windies.
Kevin Sinclair stepped in having been replaced by spin-bowling all-rounder Kevin Sinclair who played his second career Test match today after taking ill on game day.
Sinclair hit fifty on his debut test when WI pulled off an incredible comeback win over Australia in Brisbane last January.
Teams:
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wkt), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir
West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), Mikyle Louis, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Jason Holder, Joshua Da Silva (wkt) Kevin Sinclair Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph Jayden Seales.
