England off to rocky start against West Indies despite afternoon session rally

England’s hopes of banishing their post-Ashes blues in Antigua got off to a rocky start as they struggled to 145 for five at tea on day one of the first Test against the West Indies.

Exactly seven weeks since they concluded a miserable tour of Australia, Joe Root led a much-changed side into some familiar trouble at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. After much discussion about a ‘reset’ for their red-ball side, long-standing problems in the top order were quick to rear their head.

Kemar Roach landed two major blows, dismissing debutant opener Alex Lees for just four to continue England’s travails at the head of the innings before clean bowling Root for 13 offering no shot.

With Zak Crawley and Dan Lawrence also failing to hold off a stirring effort from the home attack, England were in peril at 48 for four.

A stand of 67 between Ben Stokes (36) and Jonny Bairstow (35no) restored some stability either side of lunch but, when the former lost his leg stump to 20-year-old quick Jayden Seales in the afternoon session, the Windies were back on top.

Bairstow, who scored an unbeaten century in last week’s warm-up match as well as one in his last Test appearance in Sydney, carried the fight until tea with Ben Foakes 21no on his recall.

Root had the advantage of winning the toss on what looked a reasonable batting track, but England’s struggles to post big totals are deep-set.

Lees got off the mark with a boundary from his fifth ball in international cricket, squirting to third man, but that was as good as it got for the Durham left-hander.

Roach set him up with a sequence of away swingers then brought one back in to win an lbw. It was a high-class lesson for the newcomer after several years of waiting for his chance.

Crawley had