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The biggest obstacle in New Zealand’s path to a first ever Test series win over South Africa is the opposition’s pace pack, according to coach Mike Hesson.”From a seam bowling point of view, they are strong, they have got a lot of variety,” Hesson said in Durban. “They have some bounce bowlers, some good swing bowlers, some seam bowlers so that will provide it’s own challenges.”New Zealand are fresh off a 2-0 sweep over Zimbabwe, where their batsmen profited from time in the middle but were not always challenged by a hardworking but tame attack. Donald Tiripano, Michael Chinouya, Chamu Chibhabha and Prince Masvaure all bowled around 130kphs and slower, did not find movement or bounce and offered regular freebies. Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott, Wayne Parnell or Chris Morris are not expected to be as generous.South Africa’s six seamers, of which three are likely to play, are known for swing, seam movement and speed. Even though they have not competed in a Test match in nearly seven months and two of the three first-choice picks – Philander and Steyn – missed most of last summer with injuries, Hesson expects them to pose a serious threat to his line-up.”Vernon has played a lot of cricket recently so he has got loads of overs under his belt. He is a high quality bowler. We saw him at his best a few years ago. He hits lovely lengths and we know he is going to provide a challenge there, most likely with the new ball,” Hesson said, referring to Philander’s outings with the South African A team. Philander travelled to Zimbabwe and Australia where he was his usual miserly self, although he did not lead the wicket-takers’ list.Philander’s hauls in the last two years have decreased significantly from when his career began. But New Zealand will remember his 21 against them in the series in 2012, of which 10 came in the Hamilton Test South Africa won, and his seven in the Newlands match a year later. They will be wary of his ability to tempt batsmen outside the off stump, to create uncertainty with subtle movement and if nothing else, to hold his end while his team-mates attack.It is most likely those team-mates will be Steyn and Rabada, and Hesson mentioned both as men New Zealand would watching out for. “In terms of Kagiso Rabada, he has got pace, bounce and skill and he is fresh so he keeps running in at you hard. He is someone we are going to have to spend a bit of time on. We know he is a quality bowler. And then when you’ve got Dale Steyn at the other end, there is no let off.”New Zealand will draw inspiration from their recent form – they batted three times in the two-match series in Zimbabwe, registered six centuries and were not bowled out in any of their innings – but remain cautious that run-scoring won’t be as simple in South Africa as it was in Bulawayo. “We recognise that the surfaces there (Zimbabwe) are significantly different than they are here,” Hesson said.What they don’t know is exactly how different. There has never been a first-class match played at Kingsmead in August before so nobody knows what to expect from early season conditions. Durban does not get as cold as the rest of South Africa in winter, neither does it get as dry as the inland of the country, so it is unlikely to be too fresh a pitch. It may even take some turn, as it did during a limited-overs series played last August, which New Zealand were part of. If it does, they have come prepared.”It depends how dry the wicket is. If we think it’s going to turn – it turned during the one-dayers last year – we might play two spinners,” Hesson said. “We wouldn’t be afraid playing two spinners, if we felt that it was going to be dry and turn.”That was New Zealand’s strategy in Zimbabwe where they fielded both Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner to back up a three-pronged pace pack comprising Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner. Wickets were spread among them with Wagner topping the charts with 11 scalps and Sodhi (eight), Boult and Santner and Southee (six each) not far behind. On unresponsive surfaces, the five-man attack combined to take 20 wickets twice and win the series.With that in mind, it may turn out that the biggest obstacle between South Africa defending an unbeaten record that has stretched back 14 series from 1931, and New Zealand, is the opposition’s pace pack.

BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said the board has put any plans for a mini IPL in the USA on hold, with T20 internationals being the preferred foray in the American market. The key obstacle, according to Thakur, was the time zone difference. Matches would need to start at 10am local time on the east coast in the USA, making mid-week fixtures difficult to draw big crowds and also limiting their options for alternate venues around the country.”I think we must understand the time difference,” Thakur told ESPNcricinfo. “IPL is seen in India from 7 o’clock to 11 or 11.30 at night. So you have to play somewhere in the east coast here (USA) so [that] the timing matches. If we have to play in the day here, the matches should be seen in India at night because broadcasting is a big thing. So you can’t make your home fan lose [by] playing outside India. So which are the provinces you can play in United States? That’s a big task.”IPL, we are not even thinking of hosting it outside India. It has to be hosted in India, but there are many other options what you can do which we’ll let you know over a period of time when we come out with a long-term plan for this market.”The BCCI had announced the idea of a “mini IPL” or “IPL overseas” in June when Thakur had said the board would host the tournament in September. A final approval was awaited after talks with franchises and broadcasters but no announcement has been made yet. During informal conversations with the BCCI, though, top officials have pointed out bizarrely that Thakur had never announced any plans for a tournament called “mini IPL.”The USA and UAE were options being discussed at the IPL governing council and working committee meetings earlier this year. “We have to look into various details: which country we can play in, how many teams, how many players should participate, who will be the broadcaster – all these issues need to deliberated, but we are keen to play in that [September] window,” Thakur had said in June.The BCCI had been trying to fill an empty window as India are not scheduled to play any cricket till the home Tests against New Zealand start on September 22.1:07

Anurag Thakur announcing the mini IPL in June 2016

ScorecardChris Rushworth claimed four wickets as Lancashire were bowled out for 204•Getty Images

Had James Anderson’s stress fracture healed a trifle more quickly, he would have been playing against Pakistan in the Test match at Lord’s. Instead of that, however, he spent his Saturday at the home of cricket. That, at any rate, is probably how Chris Firth sees it.On most weekends in the summer Firth captains Southport and Birkdale’s first team but at around 5.30am on the first morning of this game, he began tipping up around a thousand seats to remove the overnight rain from them. This is county week at Trafalgar Road and that matters to folk round here.Southport is not alone, of course. By a lunacy of the fixture list likely to make even the most tranquil Buddhist scream in frustration, the coming week sees Lancashire play at Southport at the same time as Glamorgan are playing at Colwyn Bay and Kent at Tunbridge Wells. And yes, it is the Cheltenham Festival, too. It is as though someone had decided to hold a beauty contest for England’s cricketing Elysiums.At all of these great grounds members have taken unpaid holidays in order to welcome first-class cricket. Sightscreens have been painted, hospitality sold and patios brushed to within a cubit of their stony lives. Wickets have been rolled and weather forecasts studied with more than jocular cynicism. Outground cricket is not some indulgent Betjemanesque whimsy; it could be near the heart of the English four-day season if only some counties and a few ECB officials loved it a little more and saw the long-term value of spending a few bob taking the game to the people.Rarely, though, does the composition of the teams in an outground match contain such delightful contrasts as was on offer at Trafalgar Road. In the Lancashire team, for the first two innings anyway, was Anderson, who will almost certainly open England’s bowling against Pakistan on Friday, but also Tom Moores, who was making his first-class debut. Moores, indeed, was watched by his father, Peter, not so long ago an England coach himself, but today, was simply a dad watching his lad.In the Durham side was Ben Stokes, who may line up alongside Anderson on Friday, and Adam Hickey, who had never played in the County Championship before. Of the four players, Moores had just about the better day. His 54-minute 25 helped Lancashire recover a smidgeon from 105 for 5 when Karl Brown was out for nought.Moores added 41 with Steven Croft but was dropped twice, receiving the first generosity when he nicked his first ball to Stokes at third slip, who thus dropped his second catch of the day and hurled the ball into the ground in Vizigothic fury. Merseyside cricket fans are generally unimpressed by such histrionics. “Hey, Stokesy-la! Butterfingers!” one yelled.Moores eventually nicked a catch to Michael Richardson off the medium pace of Keaton Jennings and the same bowler removed Kyle Jarvis, caught and bowled for 2, but it was not these later batsmen’s fault that Lancashire were 188 for 7 at tea or bowled out for 204 shortly after the resumption.Chris Rushworth, bowling on a surface which offered him pace and bounce but which both he and Lancashire’s Alviro Petersen described as a “good cricket wicket”, dismissed the last three batsmen in 11 balls early in the evening session to end the Lancashire innings. Rushworth finished with 4 for 30 from 17 overs while the Lancashire skipper, Croft, was the last man dismissed, caught and bowled by Sunderland’s finest beard for a valiant 54.How Croft must have regretted the profligacy of his colleagues, who had managed to turn a very respectable 91 for 2 into a very dodgy 105 for 5 in just three careless post-prandial overs. This decline began when Luke Procter, having got his nut down in characteristic fashion to make 30 in 135 minutes, flashed at Paul Coughlin but only edged a catch to Richardson.Then Petersen, perhaps surfing the contentment that comes when you make a half-century against a decent attack, called Croft for a second run but was well beaten by Jack Burnham’s throw from deep midwicket. Two overs later, Brown’s horribly flat-footed slash only nicked a catch to Jennings off Graham Onions. In less than the time it took the corporate hospitality boys to move from the claret to the port, Lancashire had gone from gentle prosperity to genteel poverty.But even after they had been bowled out 60 runs short of acceptability, Lancashire cricketers could still console themselves that they had Anderson in their attack during Durham’s first innings. This consolation appeared especially significant when Anderson removed Jennings in the third over of the day but Mark Stoneman and Scott Borthwick then added 69 for the second wicket in a manner that ranged from the confident to the vulnerable. The former was shown by the boundaries the pair stroked off Jarvis; the latter, by the over in which Borthwick played and missed five times to Anderson.Still, though, the pair survived and it looked as though Durham’s cricketers were heading for a position of strength when Procter removed both Stoneman and Burnham in the last five overs of a day that had begun at noon. Catches were edged to Moores and Croft and the Lancashire pair made no mistake. Rushworth considered the game evenly poised and few in the happy crowd on Saturday seemed keen to dispute the contention.And in many respects that final session was the best of the day. A fed and watered crowd watched the cricket in bubbling contentment and the Southport and Birkdale chairman, Tony Elwood, even sported his Bertie Wooster blazer. For the club’s volunteers, all their work was utterly worthwhile as the evening warmed. The sun shone, too, although if the tireless Lindsey Bridge could have found a ladder long enough, she would have sent someone up with a duster to give it a polish.

ScorecardSam Billings•Getty Images

Unbeaten centuries from Kent’s Sam Billings and Joe Denly counted for nothing as Colin Ingram’s ice-cool unbeaten 95 steered Glamorgan to a thrilling three-wicket win over Kent in a rain-affected Royal London One-Day Cup south group clash in Canterbury.In a game reduced to 42 overs per side following the loss of 90 minutes to drizzle mid-way through Kent’s innings, Ingram proved the immovable bedrock of the Welsh reply, hitting four fours and six sixes to clinch victory with seven balls to spare.Chasing a revised target of 293 from their 42 overs, Glamorgan openers Jacques Rudolph and David Lloyd took a sensible and pragmatic approach as they pursued at an asking rate of almost seven-an-over.With the floodlights on in relative gloom, the pair played themselves in before pressing the run-rate accelerator toward the end of their nine-over powerplay.Lloyd, the right-hander with an unfeasibly wide stance, was quick to straight-drive Matt Coles, then pulled viciously for another boundary when the Kent paceman dropped short.Rudolph (24) was caught on the sweep at deep square leg from James Tredwell’s second delivery of the day to make it 63 for 1and Tredwell should also have removed Will Bragg without scoring, only for Billings to miss a sharp stumping chance.Lloyd moved to a 48-ball 50 with a pulled four off David Griffiths and Bragg upped the tempo further with a 56-ball half-century with five fours and a six.The pair added 86 before Lloyd (65), in attempting a flat-bat pull against Coles picked out Latham at square leg then, two balls later Bragg (52) was caught at mid-wicket when attempting a reverse lap against Tredwell.Tredwell took a third wicket having Aneurin Donald (9) caught at long-off but Glamorgan’s fifth-wicket partners Ingram and Chris Cooke combined to rekindle the run chase and, with 10 overs required, had reduced their victory target to 86 runs.Ingram, the elegant left-hander, continued to show consummate timing in reaching a 30-ball 50 with three sixes but, with 55 needed Cooke (21) needlessly heaved across the line to be bowled by Coles then, with the target reduced to 36, Graham Wagg (8) was run out by Coles’s under-arm shy to the non-striker’s end after Ingram demanded a single.With three overs remaining Craig Meschede (8) ran himself out attempting two to deep cover, but Griffiths’s over ended with Ingram clubbing four over point and a six into the building site.In the penultimate over, Ingram steered another brace of boundaries to third man leaving Timm van der Gugten to win it.Batting first on a slow pitch that had had the sting taken out of it by Saturday’s thunderstorms, Kent’s openers Tom Latham (9) and Daniel Bell-Drummond posted a half-century first-wicket stand, only for both to fall in quick successionLatham flicked lazily off Wagg to be caught at long leg then Bell-Drummond nicked to the keeper after Michael Hogan got one to seam away using the Canterbury slope.Denly might have joined them back in the hutch when, with his score on 11, he sliced to point where Dean Cosker downed a tough overhead chance.Sam Northeast (26) pulled a length-ball from Van der Gugten straight into the hands of deep mid-wicket just before Denly posted a 64-ball 50 with four fours and a six.Rain arrived just before 1pm, leading to the loss of eight overs, forcing Kent to up their tempo after the 2.30pm re-start.Billings also enjoyed a let off when, on 27, Hogan dropped a skier at mid-off off the bowling off Meschede and took advantage by scampering to a 36-ball 50 with a six off Cosker that flew onto the Kent players’ balcony.The milestones continued when Denly moved to the fifth List A hundred of his career with eight fours and a brace of sixes.Billings continued to show why the Delhi Daredevils invested in his services in the 2016 IPL with a stunning display of clean, inventive hitting. His 53-ball 100 came with a the biggest six of the day off Hogan and took just over an hour.The pair went on to add 170 off 92 deliveries coasting past Kent’s previous List A fourth-wicket record against Glamorgan of 146 set by Alan Ealham and Chris Tavare at Swansea in 1980 as the hosts scored at 14 an over from the final five overs. In the end though, it all proved to no avail.

Nepal will meet Zimbabwe in the Plate Championship final to be held at Lincoln No. 3 tomorrow.The team that has surprised everyone in this tournament conquered a second Test-playing nation, Bangladesh, today. Nepal beat Pakistan in the opening week of the competition to open the cricket-playing world’s eyes to a new corner of cricketing power.With six 15 or 16-year olds in the team, cricket’s future looks bright in the Himalayan nation. The first step in climbing the mountain towards being a full international team has been overcome here at Lincoln, no matter what happens in the final.Coach Roy Dias, who may be in charge for the last time tomorrow, said: “We’re looking forward to it. They are a very good side, but we’ll take it as just another match because every game is like a final to us.”He defended his decision to bat first, saying, “To all the people who suggested we made a mistake, I am coach and I know the side’s strengths.”A score of 180/6 off 50 overs was more than enough to see Nepal comfortably home and overcome another huge challenge, after the shock 30-run victory over Pakistan on January 22.Bangladesh was never in it, and lost by a flattering 23 runs after an uneven attempt to reach the target.Man of the match Bardan Chalise is a member of the full Nepalese national side, and it was his 27 off 90 balls that held Nepal together on Wednesday evening after a day of gales had prevented a start before tea time.This gave Nepal tail-enders Basudev Thapa and Manjit Shrestha the chance to run everything and add 44 this morning off the 30 deliveries remaining to be bowled in their innings.”This morning the boys gave me 44 runs which was magic,” said Dias, who had hoped for a mere 30 to make a competitive score. Thapa hurt his knee when batting and looks doubtful for the final.Bangladesh began well, with Gazi Salauddin hitting Shrestha for a couple of boundaries, before three wickets fell in 11 deliveries, two to the right-arm medium of captain Binod Das, who later ran out Hasibul Haoq and caught Ali Arman blindingly at midwicket.Dias told CricInfo: “I was pleased with everyone, especially the captaincy of Das, who will be the future Nepal captain, there is no doubt about it.”The former Sri Lanka Test player, who was his country’s coach from 1998-99 has been with Nepal just three months, but his experience with Muttiah Muralithran has rubbed off on off-spinner Sanjam Regmi who, along with Chalise, who took four for 38 today, is in the senior national team.”Muralitharan is a genius and I didn’t do anything with him, though I learnt a lot from him,” said Dias, who may soon be lost to Nepalese cricket unless a new contract is offered to him within “a couple of weeks.””I’ve got to decide whether to stay or go somewhere else,” said Dias. Duleep Mendis of the Asia Cricket Council has put a proposal to coach the United Arab Emirates to Dias, whose experience as a player and coach has been instrumental in Nepal’s improvement.Possibly the most obvious aspect of Nepal’s superiority in this hard-fought game was the manic fielding and spirited teamwork the players demonstrated.”If you want to play one-day cricket you have got to be a good fielding side. It was difficult because the boys were not used to those kind of drills, but there were no complaints because they all want to improve,” said Dias.”I’d like to see these guys continue from here because they have the ability,” Dias added.The country has an aim of playing in the 2011 World Cup. Dias concluded, “If they continue no-one can say they can’t do it.”

Former New Zealand captain Amy Satterthwaite, as well as Anna Peterson and Sarah Tsukigawa have been appointed female pathway leads for their respective regions of Auckland, Canterbury and Otago. Sara McGlashan, a former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter, is leading the group of regional pathway managers.”Having three former players step into pathway manager roles is enormously valuable,” McGlashan said. “Their experience allows them to connect with players in a way that truly accelerates development, and inspires the next generation on where their journey in cricket can take them.”From strengthening relationships with clubs and schools to driving high-quality training environments, they’re helping create thriving pathways for young cricketers. Environments where players feel supported, inspired, and confident to push their potential is pivotal to their development.”Satterthwaite is the most experienced member of the trio, having represented New Zealand in 145 ODIs and 111 T20Is. She retired from international cricket in May 2022 after being told she would not receive a new central contract, and went on to join the Adelaide Strikers support staff as their assistant coach ahead of WBBL 2022-23. She led New Zealand in 13 ODIs and 12 T20Is too.Peterson, meanwhile, played 32 ODIs and 33 T20Is in a New Zealand career that ran from 2012 to 2020, and Tsukigawa, the oldest of the three at 43, played 42 ODIs and 19 T20Is between 2006 and 2011.In addition to the appointments of Satterthwaite, Peterson and Tsukigawa, former Northamptonshire and Middlesex coach Luke Pomfret has joined the Northern Districts pathway team.

Zimbabwe lost seven wickets for 37 runs to slip to 147 for 8, when a total greater than 180 had been on the cards. Still, they pushed Pakistan’s chase into the final over, their seamers striking three times in the powerplay to slow Pakistan’s advance, before also squeezing the hosts in the middle overs.Pakistan’s Nos. 5, 6, and 7, however, dug them out of the hole. Playing his comeback T20I innings, Fakhar Zaman hit 44 off 32, putting on a 61-run partnership with Usman Khan. Usman was then joined by Mohammad Nawaz, who had earlier been the best of Pakistan’s bowlers. The required rate had become something of a challenge at this stage, but Nawaz’s 20 off 12 balls ensured victory was ultimately comfortable.Had Brian Bennett held a straight-forward chance off Nawaz on the midwicket boundary, with 15 needed off 10, Zimbabwe could have mounted a sterner challenge at the business end. In the end, Nawaz struck the winning boundary with four balls to spare.Zimbabwe veteran Graeme Cremer, playing his first T20I in over seven years and after 122 matches – the latter, a record – conceded 27 runs in three overs for one wicket.

Nawaz triggers Zimbabwe’s tailspin

After seven overs, Zimbabwe were running the show. The openers had hit 11 fours and a six between them. The run rate was in touching distance of 10. And the first two overs of spin had conceded 26 runs. But Nawaz, bowling quicker and more accurately than the legspinners, made the breakthrough that soon brought a flood of wickets when he had Tadiwanashe Marumani caught at deep square leg, though that first wicket came off a full toss. Later, he would also have Ryan Burl holing out.It was Nawaz’ economy, though, that set him apart. He conceded only 22 form his four overs, and had by far the lowest economy rate (5.50) of any bowler to bowl four overs in the game. With the bat, he was fortunate to be reprieved on nine, but struck a six and two fours to ensure Pakistan didn’t flounder at the finish.

The Zimbabwe collapse

The period in which Zimbabwe crashed hardest was through the middle of their innings, when they slipped from 91 for 1 in the 11th over, to 128 for 8 in the 19th. Pakistan’s spinners bossed this period, with Saim Ayub and Abrar Ahmed also picking up key wickets. Although there was not much turn off the surface, the legspinners frequently beat batters in the flight, and created pressure through dot balls. It is this pressure that also caused two Zimbabwe run-outs.In the eight-over stretch between the 11th and 19th overs, Pakistan conceded only 30. It took an unbeaten 34 from Sikandar Raza 34 off 24 balls to avert complete disaster.

Zimbabwe seamers boss the powerplay

Early wickets are crucial when defending a modest score, and that’s exactly what Zimbabwe got, when Brad Evans removed both Sahibzada Farhan and Babar Azam in the fifth over, before Tinotenda Maposa trapped Salman Agha in the sixth over. At the end of the powerplay, Pakistan were 31 for 3.They would struggle through the next four overs too, and when Ayub was dismissed by Cremer’s legspin in the 10th over, the required-rate was up to nine, and Zimbabwe looked like defending their total. But a sensible stand between Zaman and Usman gave the Pakistan chase some substance and Nawaz finished the job.

South Africa left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing ODI series against Pakistan. According to a media release, “scans revealed a left adductor strain”, with Maharaj having suffered the injury during warm-ups ahead of the first ODI on Tuesday.South Africa have named Bjorn Fortuin as a like-for-like replacement for Maharaj for the second and third ODIs against Pakistan.Maharaj had limped off just before the toss for the first game, and was last moment replaced by pace-bowling allrounder Andile Phehlukwayo in South Africa’s XI. The release further stated that Maharaj will be returning home to Durban “for rehabilitation and will be reassessed ahead of the first Test against Pakistan”.Maharaj’s injury adds to an already lengthy list of missing bowlers for South Africa. The hosts are already without Anrich Nortje (fractured toe), Gerald Coetzee (groin), Lungi Ngidi (hip), Nandre Burger (lower back), and Wiaan Mulder (broken finger). Moreover, Maharaj recently bowled South Africa to a final-day win against Sri Lanka in the second Test in Gqeberha, bagging 5 for 76 to trigger a batting collapse.In Maharaj’s absence, South Africa have spin-bowling options in Dane Piedt and Senuran Muthusamy to choose from for the Test series against Pakistan.Those with an outside chance of making it to the side include batting allrounder Neil Brand, who bowls left-arm spin, and had toured New Zealand earlier this year; legspinner Shaun von Berg, who also made his debut on the same tour; and left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, although he had last played first-class cricket in 2021.The first Test of the two-match series against Pakistan begins in Centurion on December 26. South Africa are one win away from making it to the final of the World Test Championship, where they are currently placed at No. 1 in the points table.

Ivory Coast have entered the record books for the lowest total in a men’s T20I, rolling over for just 7 in a 264-run defeat to Nigeria in an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Sub-Regional Africa Qualifier Group C game on Sunday in Lagos.Batting first after winning the toss, Nigeria rode on Player-of-the-Match Selim Salau’s 53-ball 112 (retired out) and half-centuries from Sulaimon Runsewe (50 in 29) and Isaac Okpe (65* in 23) to put up 271 for 4. It was carnage after that. Left-arm spinner Isaac Danladi and left-arm quick Prosper Useni picked up three wickets each, right-arm quick Peter Aho got two, and Sylvester Okpe got one, with one batter run out, as Ivory Coast were dismissed in 7.3 overs. Opener Ouattara Mohamed was the top-scorer with 4 from six balls. The batters’ scores read: 4, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0* and 0.This was the first instance of a single-digit team total in a men’s T20I, and beat the earlier lowest total in the format, 10 all out, which has been recorded twice: Mongolia vs Singapore in September this year and Isle of Man vs Spain last year.The 264-run win also made it to No. 3 in the list for largest victory margins in men’s T20Is. The leader there is the 290 runs Zimbabwe beat Gambia by last month, followed by Nepal’s 273-run win over Mongolia at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in September 2023.The win was Nigeria’s second in as many games in the group, and Ivory Coast’s second loss in as many games – they had been bowled out for 21 to lose by 168 runs to Sierra Leone in their first match. Nigeria are top of the six-team table, while Ivory Coast are bottom.

Shimron Hetmyer has been handed a recall to West Indies’ ODI squad for the three-match series against England, which starts in Antigua on Thursday. Hetmyer replaces Alick Athanaze in the squad as the only change from the touring group that has just returned from Sri Lanka.Hetmyer last played ODIs in December 2023, when he was part of the team that beat England 2-1. He missed the Sri Lanka tour for personal reasons, having recently finished fifth on the run-scorers’ list at the CPL.Athanaze had been one of the incumbent openers, but lost his spot to Evin Lewis for the third ODI against Sri Lanka, in Pallekele. Lewis, making his first ODI appearance in more than three years, made an unbeaten 102 from 61 balls as West Indies finished the series with a consolation win on DLS.Shai Hope will captain the group, which also includes 17-year-old batting prodigy Jewel Andrew, who made his debut at the end of the Sri Lanka series.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

England have already arrived in the Caribbean for their third limited-overs tour since 2022. They will be led during the ODI leg by Liam Livingstone, with Jos Buttler continuing his rehab following a calf injury that has kept him out since July.”Playing against England always provides a new challenge and reignites a rivalry that the players and the people of the Caribbean are eager for,” Daren Sammy, West Indies head coach, said. “Somehow, we West Indies always find a way to raise our game when we face England.”This rivalry goes back for decades, and after defeating them last year at home for the first time in a long time in an ODI series, we’re ready to face the challenge of a strong England squad again. It’s always special to play at home, where the local support brings energy and passion to every match. With our sights set on qualifying for the ICC Men’s World Cup in 2027, we’ve selected a balanced squad that will no doubt push and compete with one of the best teams in the world.”Antigua’s Sir Vivian Richards Stadium will host the first two ODIs, before the series moves on to Barbados. It will be followed by five T20Is, played at the Kensington Oval and the Daren Sammy National Stadium in St Lucia.West Indies ODI squad: Shai Hope (capt), Jewel Andrew, Keacy Carty, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde, Shimron Hetmyer, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Gudakesh Motie, Sherfane Rutherford, Jayden Seales, Romario Shepherd, Hayden Walsh Jr