England rock solid

Michael Vaughan may be missing for the first Test of the four-game series against West Indies, but with Kevin Pietersen fit, they are big favourites to come out on top, with their price of 2/11 (1.18) a pretty sad indictment of how just far the tourists have fallen.

The retirement of Brian Lara has left a massive hole in West Indies cricket. Without him, they lack a match-winner, a man who can run a Test match on his own and dictate the outcome of a series with just a couple of innings.

England may have some problems, and they will have to get used to their new coach, Peter Moores, but they are still in much healthier shape than West Indies, at least in Test terms.

The side is fairly settled, with some good players knocking on the doors of the side and some old stagers, notably Marcus Trescothick, almost ready to come back in. Should the Somerset left-hander be ready at any stage of the series, he will add a lot to the side, increasing the tempo of their scoring, for a start.

The loss of Vaughan is a blow to England but Andrew Strauss will captain a strong side and the fact that their price has barely changed says an awful lot about the tourists.

West Indies have some talented players and will enjoy the odd good day in the summer, but they lack experience and more importantly, the confidence that comes from winning. You can't blame Lara for jumping ship but without him they look awfully short on experience and Ramnaresh Sarwan has an unenviable task as the new captain.

With Steve Harmison happy on home soil and Matthew Hoggard in form, England should have enough strength in the bowling department to knock over West Indies twice in each match, weather permitting.

Even without Vaughan, they have enough quality batsmen to get the job done, and the decision to give the captaincy to Strauss means Andrew Flintoff can concentrate on his batting and bowling.

Bet365 make England 2/11 (1.18) favourites to come out on top while you can now get 10/1 on the West Indies pulling off what would be a remarkable series win, given the circumstances.

England have not lost a Test series at home since 2001 when Australia triumphed 4-1. Since then, they have won seven series and drawn three, which is as impressive as anyone else, Australia accepted, on home soil.

West Indies, by contrast, have been little short of pathetic on their travels in the last few years, winning just five of their past 50 Tests on foreign soil, a shocking statistic.

Bet365 have come out with their usual plethora of markets so keep checking back as we will have an in-depth preview of all the good bets that are on offer.