First Test: West Indies v England, Antigua, April 13-17.

[sussexpob]

Youre right again Sussex. But... you have to do what seems to be obvious, to a certain extent. It's easier to explain Ballance being picked in the event of an England defeat, than him being left out.

250 will probably be competitive, given a weak West Indies batting line up.

Surely any relevant stakeholders who show an interest would have seen him bat recently, and understand leaving him out?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe. The press never ignores the obvious in looking for reasons. If England struggled leaving out a player who scored heavily in his last series, and picked someone instead without a record, they would say this was a bad decision. Even if it wasn't. And more pressure would fall on the coach.

[andy]

dire morning session for england, really was!!!! Windies did bowl really well, but batsman look too tentative, and it's gonna to be an attrional day of test cricket..

[Aidan11]

England need to use this lunch break wisely...

...by finding a large window at the back of the dressing room, climbing out of it and heading for the airport to catch the next plane home.

[andy]

pitch starting to look flatter now, run rate climbed to a whopping 2.35!!

[Aidan11]

50 partnership.

[yuppie]

England seem to be settling a bit now.

Ben stokes is the next batsman in, is he really a test number 6?

[Making_Splinters]

Good to see Cook keeping his exceptional form going.

[Aidan11]

This is much better.

[budgetmeansbudget]

The whole of the Sky Sports commentary team sound like they've got Aidan's cold.

[yuppie]

100 partnership up

Not watching the game. Has batting become much easier?

[budgetmeansbudget]

100 partnership up

Not watching the game. Has batting become much easier?

I've been watching for the last half hour or so, and batting seems pretty straight forward. Benn bowling one end doesn't look that threatening at the moment and at the other end only a tiny bit of movement for the seamers. Bell and Root have both been pretty positive, one or two loose shots but on the whole ok.

[yuppie]

Starting to look like England could get a good score here.

Bell is at that throw his wicket away stage though.

[budgetmeansbudget]

The innings is now up to par going by the 50 runs per wicket rule.

[budgetmeansbudget]

Root and the physio are making out on the pitch.