London, May 16:

England and West Indies head into the first Test here at Lord’s with some tricky problems still to be solved.

For the West Indies, this opening match of a four Test series will be their first since the retirement of former Brian Lara, Test cricket’s leading run-scorer.

It also represents a chance to restore some pride after the team’s lacklustre performances during the recent World Cup West Indies haven’t won a Test against England, since 2000 — something that would have been regarded as unthinkable during their glory days of the 1970s and 1980s.

England though still have problems of their own. All-rounder Andrew Flintoff has suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury and is doubtful for Thursday’s match where West Indies will look to Gayle, Sarwan and the experienced Shivnarine Chanderpaul to bolster the batting.

Meanwhile Michael Vaughan will be at Lord’s for new coach Peter Moores’s first game in charge since replacing Duncan Fletcher even though the captain, who hasn’t played a Test for 18 months, is injured (broken finger) once again.