May 24, 2009
England won the toss and decided to bowl against West Indies
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Eoin Morgan has completed his switch of allegiance from Ireland to England after he was handed his debut in the second one-day international against West Indies at Bristol. The opening match of the series at Headingley was abandoned without a ball bowled on Thursday, when the ground's new drainage failed to cope with heavy rain.
Morgan comes in for Kevin Pietersen, who has been ruled out of the series with an Achilles injury, and is expected to bat at No. 6. Matt Prior has been elevated to Pietersen's spot at No. 3, while Ryan Sidebottom and Ian Bell are the two players omitted from the squad as Tim Bresnan retains his place after the Test series.
However, Morgan will have to wait for his chance after Andrew Strauss won the toss and put West Indies into bat saying he expected a little bit of assistance from the pitch early on. The good news, after the miserable scenes the other day, is that the weather is glorious in Bristol.
The surprising news for West Indies is the omission of Fidel Edwards, who was their player of the series in the Tests, and he is replaced by Ravi Rampaul. Other than that it is the expected line-up with allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard coming into the middle order.
This match marks Chris Gayle's 200th ODI and it would be the perfect opportunity for him to lead from the front and turn West Indies' fortunes around.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Ravi Bopara, 3 Matt Prior (wk), 4 Owais Shah, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Dimitri Mascarenhas, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Tim Bresnan, 11 James Anderson
West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Lendl Simmons, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Sulieman Benn
