England aim to keep the momentum going

After England's surprisingly easy victory in the Tests against West Indies, the one-day squad will now be aiming to repeat the dose in the seven-match series, which begins in Guyana this Sunday (April 18).

The grounds should be more full for the one-dayers than they were for the Tests, but whether the majority of the England squad, especially the Test players, will share the same enthusiasm for the matches will be doubtful. The seven games are crammed into 12 days, with two sets of back-to-back games in Trinidad and St Lucia. After the emotions of such a historic achievement in the Test series, England's biggest opponent could be lethargy rather than Lara.

"Mentally they are pretty tired, but hopefully with a different format of cricket they will pick themselves up," said Duncan Fletcher, England's coach. "It's always difficult, but that's the name of the game and we have to make sure we get on with it." One player who will be itching to get on with it is Darren Gough, a late call-up to the squad, along with Stephen Harmison. Put out at not being picked in the first place, Gough, England's all-time leading one-day wicket-taker with 188, will be eager to show that he could still figure in England's plans for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

In all, England have five players in their one-day ranks who weren't part of the Test triumph, while three others, Paul Collingwood, Rikki Clarke and James Anderson, played little part in the series. Just like Gough, they will be eager to impress and show that they can carry the can when the going gets tough - rather than just carry the drinks.

West Indies will be without Brian Lara for at least the first three matches after he was advised to rest for ten days to recover from a fractured finger. Ramnaresh Sarwan will take his place, and it will be a good opportunity for him to reassert his importance and maturity to the team after his disappointing Test series, not to mention that misdemeanour in the Mound Stand in Jamaica.

Sarwan will be leading a quite different side to the Test team, with only one bowler, the economical Corey Collymore, retained from the Bajan quartet which lined up in Antigua for the fourth Test. Back comes Merv Dillon for yet another recall, as well as the Under-19 World Cup finalist, Ravi Rampaul, and the Barbados fast bowler (and captain) Ian Bradshaw. There is also a return for Shivnarine Chanderpaul after he was dropped from the Test squad. Meanwhile, Dwayne Bravo, the Trinidadian allrounder, is set to make his international debut.

England's one-day record in the Caribbean is nothing to e-mail home about. They have only won four games out of 22 there, and went down 4-1 last time round in 1997-98. However, with the momentum just about still tilting their way, England now have a great chance to turn that record round.

West Indies squad
Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Ryan Hinds, Sylvester Joseph, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Dwayne Bravo, Ian Bradshaw, Mervyn Dillon, Ravi Rampaul, Corey Collymore.

England squad
Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Ian Blackwell, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, James Kirtley, Anthony McGrath, Chris Read (wk), Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick.