WI v ENG 2019: Sam Curran could open the bowling in the 1st Test, hints England captain Joe Root

Test series kick starts on January 23rd at Bridgetown in Barbados.

Curran likely to open bowling for England with Anderson in West Indies | Getty Images

Ahead of England’s first Test of the three-match series against the West Indies, starting on Wednesday (January 23), captain Joe Root has hinted that the all-rounder Sam Curran might open the bowling for the three lions with the new ball at Kensington Oval.

While England will enter the Caribbean Test series as favorites having won eight of their last nine Tests, there could be a slight change in their game plan, especially with the opening bowling pair.

For the last 10 years, James Anderson and Stuart Broad took the new ball for England, but this time, Root and his team would see new bowling pair in Barbados, as Curran, who took the world by storm with his brilliant ability to turn games with both bat and ball, is in line to take the new ball here.

While conditions are going to be a lot different in West Indies with the nature of unpredictable pitches, the Dukes ball will be used in the Test series instead of the Kookaburra and Root is looking to give the responsibility to the young left-arm bowler along with Anderson to open bowling at Kensington Oval.

England picked three-spinner along with the 20-year-old Surrey all-rounder, Broad and Anderson for the Test series, and Root is likely to go with the young gun who has the ability to swing the ball both ways, which could give him the edge over Broad for the series opener against the West Indies.

Root told reporters, “Sam could do, yeah. Why not? We know what Stuart can do with the new ball, we’ve seen him do it for years. So, this was a chance for Sam to get an opportunity to do some learning by partnering Jimmy and swinging the ball around. We’ve seen in practice that it has swung for the majority of the day so giving him (Curran) that chance was a way of us growing as a squad and making sure we’re fully equipped, and given me plenty of options for selection in that first game.”

Meanwhile, the England skipper stressed the need to quickly adapt Caribbean conditions as they did in Sri Lanka, as the Test series will witness a number of different-type wickets to win matches here.

Root signed off by saying, “We could get a number of different-type wickets (in the West Indies) so we’ll have to be adaptable as we were in Sri Lanka. We were open to a number of different options and we’re here as a whole squad, not just as an eleven. We’re making sure everyone feels ready and, in a position, to start and we can go from there.”

(With The Telegraph Inputs)

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 21 Jan, 2019

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