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A grassy pitch at the National Cricket Stadium in Grenada may serve as the decisive factor to separate West Indies and England when the final Test match bowls off in, St George's, on Thursday.
The three-match series is level at 0-0 after the first two matches produced drawn results. The final Test carries much merit for both teams since the Windies remain without a Test victory in ten attempts since February 2021, while England's current record reads one win in 16.
The wickets at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, in Antigua, and Kensington Oval, in Barbados, for the first and second Tests respectively, were visibly dry and flat, offering little variation for the pace bowlers but favouring spinners.
The light grass surface at the Grenada venue, West Indies Test captain Kraigg Brathwaite said, is welcomed and should bring some life to the wicket for his bowling attack led by pacers Kemar Roach, Jason Holder, Jayden Seales, Anderson Phillip and Alzarri Joseph.
West Indies’ lone Test spinner is Guyanese Veerasammy Permaul but unconfirmed reports coming in on Wednesday, said that he may be replaced by TT spinner Akeal Hosein, owing to a finger injury.
Brathwaite believes the slightly greener pitch can augur well for a possible Windies victory over the Three Lions.
“The guys (team) are happy. It’s good to see the pitch with a good layer of grass but we’re not going to take it for granted. I think it’s going to nip around but we have to put in the hard hours and hit the right lengths and line.
“Normally, (the pitch) here tends to get some swing. I think it’s a good cricket pitch to be honest. I think the players will get something and the batters, if they work hard, they will get rewards as well,” Brathwaite said in Wednesday’s pre-match press conference.
On Monday, West Indies announced an unchanged squad for the third Test against England. TT pacer Shannon Gabriel remains out of the starting XI while no official confirmation of Hosein joining the team has been released by Cricket West Indies.
When asked what would a Test series-win over England mean for him and the team, the WI skipper replied, “It would mean everything. It’s one of our most favourite series as a team. It would mean a lot for Caribbean people but we know we got to work hard.
“England is going to be coming even stronger in this game so we got to work hard. We got to be on it, both mentally and physically, in all these five days of the last game.”
Brathwaite said it’s all to play for in the series decider. He believes a victory for the hosts in the final match would mean a great deal to the squad, and by extension, the Caribbean.
Additionally, Brathwaite expressed dire intent to lift the new Richards-Botham trophy and to maintain or extend their home-record against the Three Lions, to just one Test series win in 50 years.
“It’s all good. I’m looking forward to this important Test match. It’s an important game; a series decider. It’s five more days. We just have to keep that fight and attitude that we had and stay disciplined.
“It’s all to play for. We want to come out on top. We have some plans and we have to stick to be disciplined and look to carry them out and finish strong and keep that record intact,” he said.
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