2nd Test: West Indies win toss, opt to field against England

Nottingham [UK], July 18 (ANI): West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite won the toss and opted to field in the second Test of the three-match series against England at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

England, after winning the first game, will be aiming to achieve an unassailable lead against the Windies in the three-match series, while the West Indies will look forward to staging a comeback.

Notably, this is the first time since 2003, that James Anderson won’t be available for selection for England in red-ball cricket.

Even without his presence, England will be looking forward to continue its dominance against the West Indies, just like they did in the first Test.

On the other hand, the Caribbean side will look to replicate their famous win against Australia in The Gabba, which took place earlier in the year.

After winning the toss, West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite said, “We’ll have a bowl first, looks like a good cricket pitch, want to utlise what we get today. We could be a lot more disciplined with the ball. Sinclair comes in as Motie has the flu. We have to score at least 300 runs in the first innings. (On the Gabba win) Can take a lot of confidence, coming off a loss and winning at Gabba. We have to be disciplined and we can do great things.”

England captain Ben Stokes said during the time of the toss, “I felt really good [bowling] at Lord’s. Hopefully the injury woes are behind me. Really exciting to get Woody back in the whites. He’s a great fella and brings that real X-factor with his pace as well.”

West Indies (Playing XI): Kraigg Brathwaite(c), Mikyle Louis, Kirk McKenzie, Alick Athanaze, Kavem Hodge, Jason Holder, Joshua Da Silva(w), Alzarri Joseph, Kevin Sinclair, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir.