Nottingham, July 22 (Representative) England have moved off the bottom of he ICC World Test Championship standings and kept in touch with the competition pacesetters with a comprehensive 241-run victory over the West Indies in the second Test of their series here. The hosts wrapped up the series-clinching triumph late on the fourth day, with spinner Shoaib Bashir (5/41) claiming the third five-wicket haul of his career to help England dismissed the West Indies for just 143 in pursuit of 385 for victory. It means England now hold a 2-0 series lead in the three-match series against the West Indies and Ben Stokes’ side get the chance to clinch a series sweep when the third and final Test commences in Birmingham on Friday. It also helps England jump up the World Test Championship standings, with the victory catapulting the European side past South Africa, Bangladesh and West Indies and into sixth place on the current table. England hold a 31.25 percentage of possible points from 12 Tests this period and still have another 10 Test matches remaining between now and the end of the year to try and earn a place at next year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s, an ICC report said. A place in the one-off Test final has been missing for England through the first two editions of the World Test Championship series, but they could still rise as high as 62.5 percent with victories intheir remaining 10 Test matches.
Following the final match of the series against the West Indies, England host Sri Lanka for three Tests on home soil from the end of next month and then embark on tours of Pakistan in October and New Zealand in November and December for further three-match series.The West Indies fall to ninth on the standings with a 22.22 percent win-loss percentage following the late fadeout against England at Trent Bridge and have seven Tests remaining this period against England (one), South Africa (two), Bangladesh (two) and Pakistan (two). England have named an unchanged squad for the final match of the series, while the West Indieswill be hoping to regain spinner Gudakesh Motie after he missed the second Test due to illness. England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Dillon Pennington, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith,Chris Woakes, Mark Wood. West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Alick Athanaze, Joshua Da Silva (wk), Jason Holder, Kavem Hodge, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph (vc), Shamar Joseph, Mikyle Louis, Zachary McCaskie, Kirk McKenzie, Gudakesh Motie, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Kevin Sinclair.