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West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl first vs England
In West Indies’ most recent T20I series, against India in August, they took a two-nil lead, lost the next two matches and won the decider to clinch the trophy. They will bowl first in Tarouba on Thursday night, as they hope to repeat the trick against England.
They have made two changes for the finale, bringing Johnson Charles and Oshane Thomas into the side for their first appearances of the series. Charles will open the batting alongside Brandon King, with Kyle Mayers making way, while Matthew Forde sits out after an expensive debut on Thursday.
“It looks a pretty good wicket,” said Rovman Powell, West Indies’ captain, confirming their selection changes after a heavy defeat. “We’ve sat down over the last 24 hours or so and come up with some different plans.” On Phil Salt, who has scored back-to-back centuries, Powell said: “If we can stop him from hitting sixes, hopefully that can keep him quiet.”
Thursday’s match will be played on the same surface that was used during England’s 75-run win on Tuesday night, and they opted to go in with an unchanged team. Their selection means that John Turner, the uncapped Hampshire fast bowler, has spent the duration of the tour running the drinks.
Salt has retained the gloves, and will keep wicket for the second successive T20 international. Matthew Mott, England’s coach, said that it was “invaluable” for Salt to gain experience behind the stumps, with captain Jos Buttler keen to “change it up, get out in the field and talk to some of the bowlers” at mid-on or mid-off.
“We’d have looked to chase as well, but the last game was a good one batting first,” Buttler said. “It’s been a great series: exciting, lots of sixes hit. It’s great that it’s two-two heading into the last one… it’s nice to be in a knockout, final situation.”
West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Johnson Charles, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5 Rovman Powell (capt), 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Andre Russell, 8 Jason Holder, 9 Akeal Hosein, 10 Gudakesh Motie, 11 Oshane Thomas
England: 1 Jos Buttler (capt), 2 Phil Salt (wk), 3 Will Jacks, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Rehan Ahmed, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Reece Topley
