England enter the home stretch of World Cup preparation with a five-match one-day international series beginning on Wednesday at the Kensington Oval against a West Indies team seeking to feed off the success of their Test side.
Fresh from a surprising 2-1 triumph in the Wisden Trophy duel, Jason Holder leads a Caribbean team which continues to struggle in the 50-over format and is hampered by the absence of key players for a variety of reasons.
Randy Brooks/ AFP
In contrast, Eoin Morgan's England settled squad have powered to the top of the world rankings and a comfortable 171-run victory in their lone warm-up fixture on Sunday suggests that they will not be hamstrung by the challenges encountered by the Test team against surprisingly Competitive and fiercely motivated opponents.
Opening batsman Jason Roy and Test skipper Joe Root both stroked fluent hundreds in a total of 371 for seven, while all the bowlers used enjoyed a measure of success against the West Indies Vice-Chancellor's XI with opening bowlers Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, together with Leg-spinner Adil Rashid, taking two wickets each.
Having a 186-run thrashing in the first match of the three-Test series Of a home outfit in complete disarray.
West Indies results have not improved significant since that humbling, with the after champions missing out on the 2017 Champions Trophy and scraping through last year's qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe to advance to the World Cup in England and Wales, which starts on May 30.
Already without mystery spinner Sunil Narine and all-rounder Andre Russell, West Indies have been forced to amend their original squad for the first two ODIs with injuries ruling out opening batsman Evin Lewis and all-rounders Rovman Powell and Keemo Paul.
West Indies: Jason Holder (capt), Fabian Allen, Devendra Bishoo, Carlos Brathwaite, Darren Bravo, John Campbell, Sheldon Cottrell, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Ashley Nurse, Nicholas Pooran, Kemar Roach, Oshane Thomas
England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
