North Sound, Antigua, and Barbuda: West Indies and England initiate the rebuilding process from the rubble of disastrous campaigns when their three-match Test series begins on Tuesday at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
The visitors’ 4-0 thrashing in the latest Ashes contest and a record-equalling nine defeats in the last calendar year have pushed England into sweeping changes.
The Caribbean side is contending with yet another Test slump in which a 2-0 series reversal in Sri Lanka at the end of 2021 left them with a record of five losses in their last six matches.
Desperate to distance themselves from the soul-destroying experience Down Under, the English side taking the field in Antigua is set to show at least six changes, including debutant opener Alex Lees, from their final capitulation in Hobart eight weeks earlier.
Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, the celebrated swing and seam bowling tandem who are the country’s highest-ever wicket-takers in Tests, were sensationally omitted from this touring party.
Now their absence has been compounded by the loss of emerging seam talent Ollie Robinson who is sidelined by a back injury sustained in the last week’s warm-up four-day match.
However, history is not on England’s side, notwithstanding the seemingly perennial struggles of the West Indies at home in the game’s traditional format.
In the 54 years since Gary Sobers’ famous double declaration opened the door to what proved a series-clinching victory for Colin Cowdrey’s visitors in 1968, England has only one other series triumph to show for ten subsequent Caribbean campaigns — a 3-0 success in 2004 when Michael Vaughan was at the helm.
“I think we just need to play the cricket we know we can to give ourselves a fighting chance,” said West Indies head coach Phil Simmons.
“We know there is a real challenge with the batting and we have been working hard over the past few days to rectify that problem and give the bowlers something to work with.”