After all the hype surrounding his return to the international stage Chris Gayle was ruled out of the opening one-day international against England with a stress-related foot injury. This was due to be his first outing for West Indies since the World Cup quarter-final against Pakistan since when there has been an impasse between the player and the WICB which had recently been sorted out to enable him to join this tour.
However, even without Gayle the West Indies line up packs some serious punch. Dwayne Smith, who will open in Gayle's absence, warmed up with 96 against Middlesex while Dwayne Bravo is also back in the side following the IPL. They have boundary-hitting power a long way down their order with Darren Sammy at No. 9.
The player who was the biggest injury doubt for this match, Ian Bell, was passed fit to resume his ODI career opening the innings alongside Alastair Cook despite the nasty blow he took in the chin during training on Friday. He required 10 stitches and suffered a non-displaced fracture in his jaw but will begin his challenge of filling the vacancy left by Kevin Pietersen's retirement.
Elsewhere, England have opted for specialists with four quick bowlers alongside Graeme Swann meaning no place for Samit Patel at No. 7. Ravi Bopara is due to bat at No. 4 followed by Eoin Morgan and Craig Kieswetter.
England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Craig Kieswetter (wk), 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn
West Indies 1 Dwayne Smith, 2 Lendl Simmons, 3 Darren Bravo, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Andre Russell, 9 Darren Sammy (capt), 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Sunil Narine
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