England vs West Indies Lord’s Test, 1st Match Preview, Prediction and Live Streaming

There is so much white ball cricket you can consume as a fan before getting frustrated. Once one gets tired of all the razzmatazz the short-format games have to offer, one has to retort to the OG format. The serene games where you can sit back and relax watching the sport you love. English Test Summer is bringing the first hint of that surreal feeling this year. But with the glee of red-ball cricket returning, a lingering sorrow has filled the air. A sorrow that heralds the end of a tale many children grew up listening to. While James Anderson ensured the fans got ample time to process and accept his departure from the sport before his last walk back to the pavilion, many of them still have not progressed toward the next stage of grief.

Although the spotlight is on the departing legend, the game will hold a little more than that. Since the start of last year, England’s tailored revamp for Test cricket has not fired as much as it should have. The team has won a solitary series that too against Ireland since then and currently resides at the bottom of the WTC 2023-2025 table. Their most recent thrashing came against India, where the host team handed them a 4-1 humiliation. This home test series could absolve them of their previous sins or can it?

Doing that against the West Indies would be no joke. For those with amnesia, the Windies triumphed over Australia in Australia (at Gabba, to be more dramatic) just a few months ago which by no means is a job for the faint-hearted. This on top of their very ambition to ‘ruin’ the farewell for Anderson shows just how heartless they will become to win the hearts.

Team Overview:

Stuart Broad said his goodbyes last year almost out of nowhere during the Ashes series. Jonny Bairstow has already been let go. But one thing that remained and has well and truly thrived is England’s habit of announcing the Playing XI days before the game. This time they stepped it up another notch by revealing the eleven two days before the match. However, it’s not all about beating the other team in announcing squads. England plan on taking on West Indies with four bowlers in total (barring Ben Stokes and maybe Joe Root). Shoaib Bashir will be taking the spin department duties onto himself solely which can prove to be a little disastrous (unless the English management has another scheme brewing in their brains).

Saying the Windies’ bowling lineup has a lot planned to take Bazball down would not, by any definition, be an exaggeration. However, Kemar Roachs’ absence will still be felt. Batting is where they might falter even on the Lord’s pitch. Tagenarine Chanderpaul’s lean patch had him dropped from the squad but from what it seems the Windies will miss him. Mikyl Louis is one of the more interesting things about this tour, he comes from a good first-class season, however, drafting him this early is not what sane minds would do. But it’s an insane game, so even that works.

Head-to-head Matches:

Both teams have played against each other 163 times, with West Indies winning 59 games and the English team triumphing in 51 games.

Weather and Pitch Report:

The weather is cold and frequently lets showers race down. West Indies would love to bowl under clouds with the fast bowling options they have. While the weather will make all the swing arrangements, the grassy Lord’s pitch will make sure the seam movement never gets out of the equation. The spinners could come into the scene in case the weather takes a backflip, otherwise it would largely be a pacers’ affair. The batters can look to hit the ball when it’s new or wait for the pitch to get old and better for bowling. The captain winning the toss should bat first.