Experiment is of little value if West Indies blow England away

Top sportsmen are always on trial but it is difficult to recall so many players in one team being under such minute scrutiny as Joe Root’s England when they take on the West Indies in Antigua today.

Let’s take Root, the captain. As the best all-round batsman, Root is worth his place many times over. Yet his captaincy, since taking over four-and-a-half years ago, has been the poor relation to his batting and bowling, and his bowling is not that flash.

His team’s 4-0 defeat in the Ashes seven weeks ago was the second such hammering under his leadership and not many England captains survive one such drubbing, let alone two.

His survival as captain in the wake of that Ashes defeat, following the sackings of England’s head coach, director of cricket and batting coach, seems to have come with certain conditions from the man responsible for the cull, Sir Andrew Strauss.

Firstly, that Root bats at No.3, a position he has generally tried to avoid during his Test career and secondly, that he starts to find ways of taking wickets abroad without James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

Strauss is a man who believes in making bold decisions and then sticking with them, but some have questioned whether he should have made the sweeping changes he did given his role, like coach Paul Collingwood’s, is temporary until he and the ECB board appoint a new coach and director, and possibly a new chief selector for the summer.

Strauss’ response has been that he wants to give the new coach as much information about as many players as possible, which suggest this is a fact-finding experiment rather than a tour England must win.

If it looks a bit foolhardy, given England’s lack of success in the West Indies (one series win there in 55 years), changes have