England Batting First in Opening T20 Against West Indies

Host England has won the toss and will bat first in the first T20 International against the West Indies at Chester-le- Street starting in just a few minutes time, 12.30 to be exact.

The West Indies eleven got the game Johnson Charles, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (captain and wicketkeeper), Sherfane Rutherford, Rovman Powell, Roston Chase, Andre Russell, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph.

The Windies are looking for a much improved show in this format having lost the ODI series 3-nil.

Meanwhile Cricket West Indies has announced that spinner Akeal Hosein and young talent Jyd Goolie, have experienced challenges in joining the squad for the upcoming T20 Internationals against England and Ireland, which begin on Friday.

The challenges are due to updated UK visa entry requirements for Trinidad and Tobago citizens, which came into effect on April 23 and May 12.

These changes required both players to submit visa applications and attend mandatory in-person appointments.

CWI made formal efforts to expedite the visa process for Hosein and applied for a visa waiver for Goolie.

However, these processes are ultimately governed by UK immigration authorities and remain outside of CWI’s control.

CWI remains optimistic that the matter will be resolved in the coming days, allowing Hosein to join the squad for the remaining matches.

In the interim, Chase will now remain with the T20 squad for the rest of the series before joining his test team counterparts well ahead of the first Test against Australia in Barbados.

Meanwhile, Barbadian Shai Hope will debut as West Indies T20 captain when the two time world champions take on England at Riverside on Friday in the first game of their three match series.