Joe Clarke and England Lions wind up the red ball cricket part of the tour of the Caribbean in this evening’s third ‘Test’ against West Indies ‘A’ in Antigua.
The Worcestershire batsman and his team-mates will be looking to bounce back from losing the opening two games by two wickets and an innings and 17 runs respectively.
Clarke scored the Lions only half century of the second ‘Test’.
This evening’s game will take place in the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium and gets underway at 6.30pm GMT.
Clarke is also part of the Lions white ball squad and the remaining schedule for the tour is:
March 4: Tour Match – Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, Antigua
March 6 – v West Indies A – Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua
March 9 – v West Indies A – Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua
March 11 – v West Indies A – Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua
Sam Northeast and Sam Hain have both received a Lions call as the result of a hand injury to Dan Lawrence.
The Essex batsman suffered a blow to his right hand during net practice on Saturday, and x-rays have confirmed a fracture which rules him out of both the final ‘Test’ and the three-match one-day series that follows in Antigua.
He will now fly home, and following the earlier returns of Ben Foakes, Mason Crane and now an ankle injury to Liam Livingstone, that reduced the Lions squad in the Caribbean to 13 – with only four specialist batsmen.
But Northeast, who had been due to join the squad later this week ahead of the one-day series, has answered the call and arrived in Antigua late on Sunday.
Northeast is set to be one of three debutants for the Lions this evening, with Somerset spinner Dom Bess and Northamptonshire fast bowler Richard Gleeson also in line to play.
Bess will replace Crane, and team up with his fellow Somerset spinner Jack Leach, while Gleeson and Lancashire seamer Saqib Mahmood will replace Jamie Porter and Toby Roland-Jones in two more changes from the team beaten in the first two “Tests”.
Meanwhile Hain has been drafted into the Lions one-day squad.
Lions v West Indies A, third Test, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium: K Jennings (Lancashire, capt), H Hameed (Lancashire), N Gubbins (Middlesex), J CLARKE (WORCESTERSHIRE), S Northeast (Hampshire), A Davies (Lancashire, wk), P Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), D Bess (Somerset), J Leach (Somerset), S Mahmood (Lancashire), R Gleeson (Northamptonshire).
Lions one-day squad: K Jennings (capt), J CLARKE (WORCESTERSHIRE), S Curran (Surrey), J Porter (Essex), P Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), S Mahmood (Lancashire), N Gubbins (Middlesex), A Davies (Lancashire, wk), S Northeast (Hampshire), D Bess (Somerset), M Parkinson (Lancashire), M Critchley (Derbyshire), R Gleeson (Northamptonshire), T Roland-Jones (Middlesex), S Hain (Warwickshire).
*Moeen Ali scored 28 off 29 balls and bowled five overs for 30 runs as England lost the opening ODI against New Zealand by three wickets.
