Banton opens ahead of Salt; Dawson plays first England game since 2018
West Indies win the toss and bowl first against England
Kieron Pollard won the toss for West Indies and chose to bowl first at the Kensington Oval, as the first T20I against England prepared to get underway.
“It’s unfamiliar territory for me,” Pollard conceded at the toss, after losing all three tosses in the recent ODI series defeat to Ireland and four out of five at the World Cup. He chose to bowl first on a biscuit-coloured, fresh pitch with a few surface cracks and not a huge covering of grass. With the prospect of dew under the lights, West Indies hope to exploit the evening conditions when their turn comes to bat.
“We were going to bat first anyway,” Morgan said. “But the trend of the World Cup just gone is chasing, we are comfortable with it. It’s very exciting, and considering the strong group we’ve got, the guys underneath are pushing hard.”
West Indies: 1 Shai Hope, 2 Brandon King, 3 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 4 Darren Bravo, 5 Kieron Pollard (capt), 6 Jason Holder, 7 Fabian Allen, 8 Odean Smith, 9 Romario Shepherd, 10 Akeal Hosein, 11 Sheldon Cottrell
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Tom Banton, 3 James Vince, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Sam Billings (wk), 7 Chris Jordan, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Tymal Mills
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
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