ANTIGUA: Hosts West Indies had England reeling at 57 for four at lunch in the first of three Test matches at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Tuesday.
Both teams will be keen to pick up some much-needed points in the ICC World Test Championship standings.
The two teams currently occupy the bottom two places on the WTC standings, with the West Indies eighth and England one rung below following a disappointing Ashes series in Australia.
Kraigg Brathwaite’s side most recently featured in Sri Lanka towards the end of last year, where they were comprehensively swept aside 2-0 in the two-match series in Galle.
England didn’t fare much better in Australia, with Joe Root’s side thrashed 4-0 by a rampant Australian team that dominated with both bat and ball.
Selectors reacted swiftly to that defeat as they left experienced seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad at home for the tour of the Caribbean, while fellow quick Ollie Robinson has succumbed to a shoulder injury and won’t be fit for this Test.
The two teams will battle it out for the newly-created Richards-Botham trophy, named after West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards and England star Sir Ian Botham.
West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Veerasammy Permaul, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales England: Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
(Source: ICC Media)
