England name squad for ODI series against West Indies

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced the ODI squad for the 3 match ODI series against West Indies. The series will be played in the Caribbean Islands in the month of March. The selectors have kept the Champions Trophy in mind and hence did not tinker with the squad at all. In a very expected move, the selectors drafted the same squad that recently participated in the ODI series against India.

The 14-man squad has been named as the same unit despite their defeat at the hands of India. This can largely be attributed to the fact that the England team had performed exceedingly well albeit the scoreline suggests it to be a 2-1 defeat. Eoin Morgan will lead the side and will have the experience of Joe Root to his armory. Among the batsmen, Sam Billings and Jason Roy are well settled at the top.

Both batsmen, Roy in particular, has been in a prolific form in the recent times. He scored a fifty in each of the three ODIs he played against India. The all-rounders seem to have flooded the English squad. Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid have all been in a good form. The bowling, as expected, is predominantly a fast bowling attack. About naming the same squad, the ECB national selector James Whitaker quoted that the squad has been named keeping the major ICC trophy into consideration.

“There is a huge emphasis on white-ball cricket during the first half of 2017, as we continue our preparation ahead of this summer’s ICC Champions Trophy tournament in England. We felt it was important to keep faith with the squad that competed during the recent tour of India. The current group of players are making excellent progress under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan and head coach Trevor Bayliss and the tour of the Caribbean will enable the team to test themselves in different conditions against a competitive side in the West Indies,” he quoted.

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England squad for West Indies series:

Eoin Morgan (C), Sam Billings, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Moeen Ali, Jake Ball, Jonathan Bairstow, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, David Willey.

Here are the fixtures for the tour:

Warm Up 1: England v WICB XI on 25th Feb

Warm Up 2: England v WICB XI on 27th Feb

1st ODI on March 3 at Antigua

2nd ODI on March 5 at Antigua

3rd ODI on March 9 at Barbados