Joe Root Returns As Captain For England While West Indies Aim For Series Win

Joe Root has returned from his paternal leave and has replaced stand-in skipper Ben Stokes while West Indies aim to win the series. West Indies are already 1-0 ahead in the three-match Test series. Read below to know more.

England team is planning to bounce back as their captain Joe Root returns to the side. England will take on West Indies in the second Test match at Old Trafford starting Thursday. The star batsman Joe Root missed England’s four-wicket defeat at Southampton in a match that marked the return of international cricket after the lockdown.

Joe Root was on paternity leave and was attending the birth of his second child. In his absence all-rounder, Ben Stokes donned the skipper hat. However, now Root has rejoined the squad while West Indies are aiming for a series win. The West Indies have already taken the lead of 1-0 in the three-match Test series. If West Indies win the remaining two matches of the series at Old Trafford it will be their first series win in England after 32 years.

Even when the matches are being played behind closed doors because of the social distancing rules, Root will be familiar with the situation.

England have now lost the opening match of a series for the eighth time in ten campaigns, a run dating back to the 2017/18 Ashes in Australia. Earlier this year in South Africa they did recover from a heavy defeat in the first Test to win that series 3-1.

Joe Root will probably replace Joe Denly in the squad, as he was Denly was twice out cheaply at Southampton, with fellow batsman Zak Crawley making 76 in a second innings where England’s loss of five wickets for 30 runs proved more pivotal to the result than their controversial decision to omit veteran paceman Stuart Broad.

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It will be interesting to see if Stuart Broad will return to the squad under Root’s captaincy.

England is all geared up to turn the game around and win the Test match starting on Thursday to make the last match a tie-breaker.