West Indies vs England Prediction: England has a new captain

West Indies and England are going head to head in the Match 1 of One Day Series at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Saint George, Antigua and Barbuda on 31 October 2024. England has a new captain at the helm. Who will win this game of cricket?

West Indies players have a tough return journey to Antigua from Sri Lanka after having been defeated in the test series and having to compete against England. The list of players has not officially been announced by the Cricket Board of West Indies although it is likely to go unchanged. Brandon King is likely to share the opening session with Evin Lewis, who made a century in the previous match against Sri Lanka and has been great against England. He was coming off a personal best of 102 against India. The third position will be taken up by Shai Hope, who has impressive ODI statistics overall and against England. Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, and Romario Shepherd will be the important players in the middle order. Rutherford is one of the outstanding performers in the recent matches. Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seals, Hayden Walsh, and Gudakesh Motie will be the bowling line-up with Joseph and Motie being the key bowlers to watch.

Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Keacy Carty, Shai Hope (c & wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Jewel Andrew, Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Matthew Forde, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales.

Ben Duckett is going to be opening for England and with Phill Salt. Ben Duckett had been phenomenal with bat during white-ball cricket and the five one-day matches played this season saw him reach 305 runs at an average of 109.71 runs. In contrast, Salt has failed with the bat by scoring only 96 runs in five innings. Meanwhile, Will Jacks is set to come in at three as he has scored 156 runs in five ODIs this year with a strike rate of 99.36 and also displayed all-round skills by scoring 116 runs and taking three wickets against West Indies. Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran would be the primary players of the middle order, the former having amassed 170 runs from the last 8 ODIs at a strike rate of 119.71, while Curran has demonstrated his solidity with bat as well as ball. Jordan Cox, who recently got his first international experience in the T20I series against Australia, might be given a chance in ODIs in the Caribbean.

Reece Topley will support Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton in bowling. In the last nine ODIs, Topley has picked 13 wickets with an economy rate of 6.11. Archer has also picked three wickets since his comeback, but for the last three ODIs. Adil Rashid will be the spinner of the team and leads England's wickets taker in ODIs from last year with 12 wickets at the economy rate of 4.84. Whether Jafer Chohan, the Yorkshire bowler, who took 17 wickets in ten matches played this year, makes his place in the playing XI is not certain.

Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Phill Salt, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Jordan Cox, Reece Topley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Saqib Mahmood.

Despite home advantage on their behalf, the West Indies still have to travel from Sri Lanka to take on England. After both the loss of the series in both ODIs and T20I, there is the glimmer of hope which has been restored by that win. They will surely miss a couple of star players and mainly depend upon the top order, including Ben Duckett. We believe that they will gain the upper hand against West Indies.