England start off as firm favourites

Steve Harmison has been in excellent form this season, and has a superb record against West Indies as well © Getty Images

West Indies still hold a 52-38 advantage in Tests against England, but since 2000 they've seen their lead whittled away quite alarmingly: in the last 12 Tests between the two teams, England have won ten, while two have been drawn. West Indies' last victory was in June 2000, when they thrashed England by by an innings and 93 runs at Edgbaston. (Click here for a summary of all England-West Indies Test series.)

England will go into the series as favourites, and they won't mind beginning the series at Lord's either. The venue used to be an unlucky one for them: they lost 11 Tests and won four from 1984 to 1999, but the tide has turned in the new decade - they've won eight of their last 14 Tests here. (Click here for England's results in all Lord's Tests.) Lord's has been a good venue for them against West Indies too - there was a period from 1963 to 1991 when England didn't win a single Test against them at Lord's, but since then they've won three in a row, including the last time in 2004 by a whopping 210 runs.

Thanks to their pre-eminence in the decades gone by, though, West Indies hold most of the records in Tests between the two teams: the six top run-scorers and the seven top wicket-takers are all West Indians. Garry Sobers leads the run-getters' chart with an aggregate of 3214 at an average of over 60, while Curtly Ambrose is on top of the bowlers' ladder with 164 wickets at 18.79. (In fact Ambrose is the only non-Australian bowler to take more than 150 wickets against a specific opposition team; three Australians - Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee - have achieved it, all against England.)

Fortunately for England, the current crop of West Indians won't evoke such fear. Ramnaresh Sarwan leads a team whose credentials aren't exactly top-drawer - to start with, he himself hasn't flourished in English conditions, averaging only 35.83 in 14 Test innings in England. The two other regulars in the West Indian batting line-up who have experience of playing in England before are Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle, and both have done much better, though: Chanderpaul averages 58.54 in 14 Test innings in England, but less than 35 against them at home; similarly, Gayle averages 44 in England, and only 26 against them in the West Indies.

Gayle's opening partner, Daren Ganga, hasn't played a Test in England yet, but their combination at the top of the order has been pretty successful: they are the second-most successful opening pair for West Indies, in terms of partnership runs in Tests. They've put together 1627 runs at an average of 42.81, and are second only to the Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes combination, which scored 6482 runs in Tests at an average of 47.31.

England's players are coming off a poor World Cup and a 5-0 drubbing in the Ashes, but they can heart from their recent domination of West Indies. Like England, Andrew Flintoff, their talismanic figure, has been in awful form too, but if his past record is anything to go by, he too should relish the opportunity to face West Indies - Flintoff averages 51.25 with the bat and 24.69 with the ball against them.

The two other fast bowlers in the England attack will have fond memories of playing against West Indies too - Steve Harmison had a wretched Ashes series, but he's back in form, as is evident from his 27 wickets in four first-class matches this season, and West Indies better beware: in eight Tests against them, Harmison has nabbed 40 wickets at 21.10 apiece, almost ten runs better than his career average. Matthew Hoggard hasn't done badly either, his 29 wickets against West Indies coming at an average of 29.89. Among the three experienced West Indian batsmen batsmen, only Gayle has a good overall record against Harmison, Hoggard and Flinoff.

West Indian batsmen versus Harmison, Hoggard and Flintoff

Batsman	Runs	Balls	Dismissals	Average
Ramnaresh Sarwan	237	493	13	18.23
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	286	608	8	35.75
Chris Gayle	419	514	9	46.56

The West Indian pace attack pale in comparison. Among the frontline fast bowlers, Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards are the only ones to have played Tests against England, and both have struggled: Collymore has managed nine wickets in seven Tests at an average of 63, while Edwards's 13 wickets have come at more than 50 apiece. A bigger threat might be Dwayne Bravo, whose 16 wickets in four Tests have come at an impressive average of 26.

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