West Indies v England: Benedict Bermange's key stats ahead of the ODI series
Thursday 2 March 2017 21:32, UK
Ahead of Friday's first one-day international between the West Indies and England, Benedict Bermange looks at the key stats going into the three-match series...
England and the West Indies have faced each other 88 times in ODI cricket since their first meeting at Headingley in 1973. And amazingly enough, the current score is 42 wins apiece, with four matches ending in no-results.
England have won the last four head-to-head series' between the teams, with the West Indies' last victory coming back in 2007 in England, under the leadership of Chris Gayle.
This time, both teams are coming off series defeats; the West Indies failing to advance to the final of the tri-nation tournament in Zimbabwe last November also involving Sri Lanka, while England fell to India in January.
To say the West Indies are missing a number of big names for England's visit would be somewhat of an understatement.
Here is an alternative squad, made up of players who are either injured or who have not been selected. As many as four are missing due to their involvement in the Pakistan Super League T20 competition at the expense of playing in the domestic 50-over tournament:
England will be relying on Alex Hales to get their innings off to a good start, especially after he declined to tour Bangladesh at the end of last year.
His ODI career fits nicely into two halves - before the autumn 2015 tour of the UAE to play Pakistan, and after it:
He has certainly turned things around after that sticky start. However, one caveat is that his last eight innings in ODI cricket have been 0, 7, 14, 171, 8, 23, 9, 14, with his England record 171 the anomaly.
Adil Rashid is England's leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket since the last World Cup, with 48 wickets, and he has four four-wicket hauls in that time too.
Note though that Moeen Ali - despite having a terrible bowling average over that period of time - is England's most economical bowler of all those who have played at least two matches.
Over that same period, England have the best scoring rate of any of the ICC Full Member sides, but their bowling attack leaks runs at a greater rate than any others, except for Sri Lanka.
The West Indies missed out on qualification for this summer's ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England, and as they are currently still in ninth place, they will want to try to make progress up the rankings table.
Hosts England and the seven other top sides in the rankings as of September 30 this year will automatically qualify for the 2019 World Cup.
Watch the first ODI between West Indies and England live on Sky Sports 2, online and via mobile and selected tablet devices, on Friday, March 3.
