The 1st of the three tests between the West Indies and England will begin on March 08 at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.
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.
The hosts will be aiming to continue the momentum of the 5 match T20 series which the hosts won 3-2.
Both Windies and England are sitting at the bottom two spots of the WTC 2022-23 points table and will be hoping for a significant change in positions after the conclusion of the series.
Led by Kraig Braithwaite, the hosts seem to have an upper hand.
The visitors are coming after a horrible 4-0 Ashes defeat and will be without their two key pacers in James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Also Ollie Robinson will miss the first Test against the West Indies through injury.
Robinson hurt his back while bowling in England’s warm-up match against a Cricket West Indies President’s XI last week and has failed to recover in time to be named in the 12-man squad for the opening Test that starts in Antigua on Tuesday.
When last time England toured West Indies, they suffered a 2-1 defeat in 2019 and the Caribbean side will be looking to defend the home record against Joe Root led side.
WI Playing 11 (likely) Kraigg Brathwaite and Jermaine Blackwood will open the innings Joshua Da Silva will keep the wickets Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, and Kyle Myers will bat in the middle order Kemar Roach, Jason Holder, Kyle Mayers, Veerasammy Permaul will form the attack
Kraigg Brathwaite (C), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, Kyle Mayers, Jason Holder, Joshua Da Silva (wk), John Campbell, Kemar Roach, Veerasammy Permaul , Jayden Seales/ Alzarri Joseph
West Indies Squad Kraigg Brathwaite (Captain), Jermaine Blackwood (Vice Captain), Nkrumah Bonner, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Joshua Da Silva, Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph, Kyle Mayers, Veerasammy Permaul, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales
England squad for first Test: Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
If Roach plays it will be ten against eleven , Roach is a passenger on any test team ,ao 120 kph slower than some spinner , he gets tired and can’t bat a whiff but he will play because Desmond Haynes is his friend .