Mark stoneman will open the batting for england along with Alaistair Cook.
England captain Joe Root has called upon opener Mark Stoneman to grab his chance and prove his mettle as an opening batsman during the three match Test series against West Indies.
Speaking to sky sports, Root said, “He’s obviously got a huge amount of runs under his belt this year, in particular, and in previous seasons as well. He’s got a well-rounded game, he’s a bit more experienced having played a lot of county cricket and I’m excited to see him go and hopefully take his opportunity.”
He further added, Ideally you want some to come in and set the world alight and their career moves forward from there. But I’d like to think Stoneman will get a very good opportunity and some good game time with England. This is just a great opportunity for Mark to go out and show everyone how good a player he is.”
England has had a troubled time in finding a settled opening combination. Commenting on it, Root said, “Of course you want [the top order] to be settled,” said Root. “You never want to go into a series with guys out of form or under pressure but I think that is one of the challenges of Test cricket. And, as a side, generally, we’ve responded quite well to that in the past.”
Meanwhile, with the day-night Test set to begin from Thursday, Root believes it is a chance for everyone in his team to get an experience.
“I think it is a great opportunity for the rest of the guys to experience a pink-ball Test match for the first time and I’m really excited to get the week going. I think there are different challenges that [the pink ball] brings and at different times of the day than you’d normally expect in Test cricket., Root said and added, “But, ultimately, it is still the same fundamentals of cricket and you’ve just got to make sure that when those difficult periods crop up that we respond well and quickly. I think it’s great that we’re giving [day-night Test cricket] the opportunity to work here, I’m sure it’ll be a very exciting spectacle. It’ll be interesting to see how this week pans out.”
