Jofra Archer replacement: England have made as many as four changes to their Playing XI from the Southampton Test.
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During the first day of the second Test of the ongoing West Indies’ tour of England in Manchester, West Indies captain Jason Holder has won the toss and opted to field to surprise one and all.
With the Old Trafford known for its first-innings score, it was expected that whoever wins the toss would have made optimum use of the surface by batting first in the first innings.
While the initial weather forecast hadn’t predicted rain on Day 1, toss got delayed by more than an hour as weather played spoilsport for yet another time in the series. It seems it was the overcast climate which made Holder opt to field first.
“We’re going to field first. Try to make use of the overhead conditions. Whatever it is under the surface, we’ll try to extract it in the first session. The bowlers have pulled up quite well, expect similar things in this game,” Holder was quoted as saying during the toss.
As expected, West Indies have persisted with their winning combination which means that the same team will be playing the second match.
Jofra Archer replacement
As far as the hosts are concerned, they had no option left than to put on display a whole different fast bowling division especially after fast bowler Jofra Archer was ruled out of this match after breaching biosecurity protocol.
With captain Joe Root requiring to leave one out Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and Ollie Robinson, he has decided pick experience over potential as 26-year old uncapped Robinson will continue to wait for his Test debut.
“We have to look ahead to the next five days and put up a good performance. We spoke to Mark [Wood] and Jimmy [James Anderson] and knew it’s a high risk to play them in back to back games.
“It is a must win for us, but we need to look after them as well. We can take 20 wickets and we’re looking forward to that. We have [Stuart] Broad, [Chris] Woakes, [Sam] Curran and [Dominic] Bess in the bowling,” Root said during the toss.
Sam Curran, a handy option with the bat, is said to have replaced Archer at Old Trafford. Talking about other changes, Root, Chris Wokaes and Stuart Broad have replaced the likes of Joe Denly, Mark Wood and James Anderson.
