England v West Indies: Toby Roland-Jones replaces Chris Woakes

  • Published
  • comments
Chris Woakes and Joe RootImage source, Reuters
Image caption,

Chris Woakes made his international return from a side strain in the second Test at Headingley

England v West Indies, third Investec Test

Venue: Lord's Dates: 7-11 September

Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, Radio 4 LW, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app. Live text commentary and clips on the BBC Sport website.

England have replaced all-rounder Chris Woakes with pace bowler Toby Roland-Jones for the third and deciding Test against West Indies at Lord's.

Woakes returned to the England side for the second Test at Headingley, but struggled as the hosts were beaten by five wickets.

Middlesex's Roland-Jones will play at his home ground in the match which begins on Thursday.

It is England's last Test before they defend the Ashes this winter.

Woakes suffered a side strain in the opening game of the Champions Trophy in June and played only one County Championship match for Warwickshire before returning to the England Test side.

Though he made an unbeaten 61 in England's second innings, he returned bowling figures of 1-78 and 1-44 as West Indies chased 322 on the final day to pull off a shock win.

"This is the team I think can win this week," said England captain Joe Root.

"Chris is a fantastic performer across all the formats and I fully expect he will come back strong. There's plenty of cricket to be played over the rest of the summer."

Roland-Jones has taken 14 wickets in three Tests since making his debut against South Africa earlier this summer.

England are not only looking to avoid a home series defeat by West Indies for the first time since 1988, but also for members of their top order to establish themselves in Test cricket before the Ashes.

Opener Mark Stoneman and number five Dawid Malan both made half-centuries in Leeds, but number three Tom Westley has passed 10 only once in his previous five Test innings.

"You speak as a batting group and as a team you have conversations in the dressing room all the time. You want to make sure you are helping out when you can," said Root.

"Ultimately no one knows Tom's game better than he does and he will be desperate to prove a point."

'There's not much we can do but pray'

West Indies' stunning victory in Leeds was their first Test win away to England since 2000.

They are now chasing their first Test series win outside the Caribbean against a team other than Zimbabwe and Bangladesh since 1995.

"To win is always special, but we can't dwell on that," said Windies captain Jason Holder. "It's just one cricket game and there's a series to win - that's our main objective.

"At Headingley we showed what we can do. It's about us being consistent. We start afresh here."

For the tourists, the Lord's Test will be played as Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever recorded, hits parts of the Caribbean.

"We think about what is going on back home, many of us have family back there," said Holder. "There's not much we can do here but pray - hope everyone stays safe and gets through it."

Around the BBC

Related Internet Links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.