1st Test: West Indies v England at North Sound

[quote author=cowcorner link=topic=97088.msg631369#msg631369 date=1428873738]
6-1 :  The series head-to-head record for West Indies against England at home, since 1980.

[color=red]
[size=10pt]The only series lost was in 2004[/size], [color=black]when England won a four-Test series 3-0.
[/quote]

Good Luck ! 

England begin a run of 17 Tests in just nine months today when they take on the West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.

After three Tests in the Caribbean, England have summer Test series against New Zealand and Australia - both far superior teams than the Windies on paper - followed by four Tests in South Africa during the winter.

The match in Antigua sees captain Alastair Cook return to England colours for the first time since being unceremoniously axed as ODI captain ahead of the World Cup and he knows his team need to rebuild their collective confidence – quickly – ahead of the sterner tests to come.

On the eve of the first Test, Ramdin said: "We have a young team and we will come out and play exciting and attacking cricket. It will be a tough series, with some hard days on the field, but we are ready for the hard work. We are fully prepared.

"We know the opposition is a very good team, we need to do the basic stuff which is important ... when we get out to bat try and spend time at the crease.

"We are pushing ourselves a lot more now. A lot of youngsters are coming through, new faces that the English don't know about."

After the first match, the sides will play two more Tests in Grenada and Barbados respectively.

[quote author=The Captain link=topic=97089.msg631410#msg631410 date=1428928068]
finally real cricket
windies don't have the talent Hmm
Ireland had the talent
[/quote]

Windies now have Ireland's Coach ...  

'Talk de talk ... and walk de walk' comes to mind :

[quote author=dillinger10 link=topic=97069.msg631360#msg631360 date=1428868305]
What does everyone think the attendance will be for the first days play?
[/quote]

With the half day public holiday and reasonable ticket prices plus 'everyone hates Mondays' .... perfectly good reasons to attend the game !!

However, I think local support will be in the minority !!! .... hope I'm wrong !!  :-\

West Indies have won the toss and elected to bowl first in the 1st Test against England in Antigua

Denesh Ramdin says he is hoping to exploit whatever life there currently is in the deck. They've shied away from playing two spinners, so there's no return for Devendra Bishoo

England line up as expected, with Jonathan Trott coming in to open alongside Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes taking Moeen Ali's allrounder spot at No. 6.

James Tredwell, who lost his place in Kent's Championship side last year, is the spinner.

West Indies:

1 Devon Smith, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Denesh Ramdin (capt/wk), 8 Jason Holder, 9 Jerome Taylor, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Sulieman Benn.


England:

1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Jonathan Trott, 3 Gary Ballance, 4 Ian Bell, 5 Joe Root, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jos Buttler (wkt) 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Tredwell, 11 James Anderson.