West Indies vs England: Liam Livingstone embracing 'new career' after going from dropped to stand-in ODI captain

This is quite some turnaround for Liam Livingstone.

After initially being dropped by England for September's one-day internationals against Australia, he now finds himself captaining his country against West Indies in the same format.

Jos Buttler's calf injury - an ongoing issue that means the regular white-ball skipper has not played an innings since June - has ruled him out of the three 50-over games in the Caribbean, the first of which takes place in Antigua on Thursday (6pm UK and Ireland).

Therefore, Livingstone is at the wheel on a temporary basis. A Ruud van Nistelrooy figure, if you will, although as a Blackburn Rovers supporter he may prefer to be compared to Tony Parkes.

Harry Brook stood in for Buttler during the Australia ODIs but has just finished a Test series in Pakistan and is now preparing for one in New Zealand, so is not out in the Caribbean.

With England's ODI squad for this assignment so inexperienced - four players (Jafer Chohan, Michael Pepper, John Turner and Dan Mousley) have not played any international cricket, while some others (including Jacob Bethell and Jordan Cox) so little - Livingstone was one of the few captaincy candidates, probably alongside batter Phil Salt and fellow all-rounder Sam Curran.

"It's not every day someone tells you you're going to be England captain. It's an incredibly proud thing for me," Livingstone, 31, said after going from chopped to in charge in a matter of weeks.

"It's my job as an experienced player to help these guys along and make them as comfortable as possible in this environment.

"I want the next few games to be a hell of a lot of fun, play some good cricket, win some games and then hand the reins back to Jos."

It was actually T20 international cricket - the format in which he thumped England's fastest hundred, off just 42 balls, against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2021 - that provided Livingstone's avenue back into the 50-over team.

Knocks of 37 from 27 balls and then 87 from 37 in T20s against Australia last month while batting at No 4, coupled with Buttler's continued injury absence, saw him added to the ODI group and he went on to play all five matches batting at No 6.

Around two ducks and a score of 13, he smoked an unbeaten 33 from 20 balls in Durham and then 67 from 27 at Lord's, with those innings helping England to victory on both occasions.

"Being left out is all part of professional sport. I sat down with Rob Key [managing director of men's cricket], had a really honest conversation with him and said, 'all I want is another opportunity and hopefully I can prove you wrong'.

"In the series against Australia, I certainly felt I did that. I'm in a very different place to where I was six or 12 months ago, I feel like a kid, like I'm almost at the start of a new career.

"I feel like the best of me is still to come."

Livingstone has lived a bizarre England existence, often batting in a lower middle-order spot and charged with teeing off from ball one, while then serving as a part-time bowler around frontline spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali, the latter of whom has now retired.

That has made it hard for him to impact games regularly but he wants a bigger role now and it will be interesting to see whether he moves even higher up the batting order than No 6 against West Indies, with no Buttler, Brook, Ben Duckett or Jamie Smith.

Only twice in his 30 ODIs has Livingstone batted above No 6. Only twice has he faced over 50 deliveries.

"I've always said I know I'm good enough to play for England but maybe I needed more responsibility than I was getting. I don't think I got that for the last two years," he added.

"If you're batting seven and only bowling a couple of overs a game it becomes quite a difficult role for someone who wants to be involved.

"I feel I've worked a few things out with my batting and had a really good end to the summer.

"Now I'm excited to get a bat back in my hand and prove that I'm a better player than someone who bats at seven. I believe I can do more damage if I face 60 balls rather than 20."

Livingstone has challenged his inexperienced white-ball squad to make a name for themselves in the Caribbean, urging them to seize their moment in what is England's penultimate ODI series before next year's Champions Trophy.

"There's a lot of untapped talent and we are going to see some of that," Livingstone said in his pre-match press conference. "Hopefully there will be someone within this group where people say: 'remember that series we had in the West Indies when so-and-so made a name for themselves?'

"I have no doubt that someone or even a couple of guys will put their hand forward. The strength in depth we have in English cricket, when you look at the boys we are missing to the squad we've still got here is pretty exciting.

"There's going to be a lot of debuts over the next few weeks. It's about time we threw them in at the deep end and see what they're all about."

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