England Face West Indies as a Test Champion

London: England face three Tests against West Indies before three against South Africa knowing that defeat in either series will see the Proteas replace them as world number ones.

Darren Sammy will look to put the knowledge of Lord's gained from his time as an MCC Young Cricketer to good use when he captains the West Indies.

The 28-year-old all-rounder spent three seasons, from 2003-2005, on the Lord's ground staff programme which has helped nurture generations of future professional cricketers including England legends Denis Compton and Ian Botham as well as Australia's Mark Waugh and New Zealand's Martin Crowe.

Sammy, speaking at Lord's on Wednesday on the eve of the first Test, said his time at Lord's had been pivotal to his progress.

Unless the hosts decide to be really bold and select five frontline bowlers, Jonny Bairstow will make his Test debut at No. 6 to become the 13th father-son combination to play Tests for England. Then the only decision is who supports Anderson and Stuart Broad. Tim Bresnan may just be leading the race ahead of Steven Finn and Graham Onions.

Ottis Gibson has hinted at a four-man pace attack for West Indies with Shane Shillingford, the offspinner, missing out despite his impressive comeback against Australia. There have been some niggles in the camp over the last week and Ravi Rampaul did not take a full part in training on Wednesday. Narsingh Deonarine is the man in possession at No. 6 but his late arrival may count against him.

Teams from

England: Andrew Strauss (Middlesex, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Matt Prior (Sussex, wk), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire).

West Indies: Darren Sammy (capt), Kirk Edwards (vice-capt), Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Fidel Edwards, Assad Fudadin, Shannon Gabriel, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Marlon Samuels, Shane Shillingford.

Pitch and conditions
Chris Adams, the Surrey team director, was highly critical of a Championship pitch at Lord's earlier in the season. It has been tough for Mick Hunt, the groundsman, with all the wet weather around but there is rarely a concern about one of his Test strips. At Lord's it is often a question of looking up, not down. If it is cloudy expect help for swing bowling.

Stats and trivia

• West Indies have not won an away series against anyone other than Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 17 years.
• They have not won a Test at Lord's since 1988 when Malcolm Marshall took 10 wickets in the match.
• England have churned out hundreds at Lord's in recent years; since 2006 they have hit 24 with Kevin Pietersen scoring five, while Alastair Cook and Matt Prior have three apiece.

Match facts
May 17-21, 2012
Start time 1100 local (1000 GMT)