England off to shaky start as Chase breaks through

England have ended the first session of their second Test against West Indies at Old Trafford on 29-1 after Jason Holder won the toss and put them in to bat. 

England made four changes as regular skipper Joe Root came back to their team after becoming a father for the second time. Pacer Jofra Archer had to be dropped as he was sent into isolation after violating the Covid-19 protocols and was replaced by Stuart Broad. Sam Curran and Chris Woakes were the other two to come in and Joe Denly, Archer, James Anderson and Mark Wood made way. 

West Indies, fresh from their win at Southampton, went with the same eleven. 

Conditions were no different from Southampton at Manchester as rain and a wet outfield delayed the game by more than an hour. The toss was an hour after the scheduled time of play to start and only 13.2 overs were played before the session came to a close. 

English openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley saw out the West Indies seamers for 13 overs and were on their way to finish the session unscathed. But off-spinner Roston Chase had other ideas as he dismissed Burns with only his second delivery of the match for 15. 

Burns tried to defend a straight one from Chase but only managed to miss it as the delivery hit him dead on his pads. Burns was given out and adding insult to England's pre-lunch wound, he wasted a review as the teams went to lunch. 

Earlier in the first Test, West Indies beat England by four wickets to go 1-0 up in the series.

Brief Scores

England: 29-1 (Burns 15, Crawley 8*, Chase 1-1)