England Cricket / Editor / 30 May 2007 /

Things cannot get much worse for the West Indies. A respectable draw in the first Test at Lord's was followed by a hammering at Headingley Carnegie and the news that captain Ramnaresh Sarwan will miss the rest of the series through injury.

The innings and 283-run defeat at Leeds is the worst ever in their 79-year history and stand-in skipper Daren Ganga is faced with the daunting task of lifting his squad for the remaining Tests at Old Trafford and Chester-le-Street.

West Indies' winless streak in Tests has now stretched to 18 matches over two years and the meek manner of their Headingley surrender suggests things might get worse before they improve. Punters don't expect a recovery in this series - England trade at 2.2 to claim a 3-0 win.

The contrast between the tourists and the hosts is stark. England recorded their third largest ever innings victory in West Yorkshire, which stands in 10th place on the biggest winning margin list overall. Some of the winter's Ashes wounds were healed with that thumping win at Leeds, which marked a triumphant return to action for Michael Vaughan.

The captain hit his 16th Test ton in his first appearance after an 18 month injury lay-off and surely went some way to answering the critics who demanded that he play more county cricket before being recalled.

His swift return to the fold after regaining fitness can be attributed to his excellent captaincy record. Vaughan has now won 20 of the 34 Tests he has captained, the same number of victories achieved by England under the leadership of Peter May, who led his country 41 times. Punters expect Vaughan to claim the record outright at Old Trafford - England are currently on offer at 1.54 to win the third Test.

Kevin Pietersen is another England player who enjoyed personal success at Leeds. He hit a Test best 226 to earn himself the Man of the Match award and, after 25 Test appearances, has scored 2,448 runs - only Sir Donald Bradman had scored more after that number of matches.

Pietersen is unsurprisingly hot favourite to be the home side's top run-scorer in the series, trading at 1.18. He has scored 361 runs so far and needs another 332 to beat Patsy Hendren's record tally for an Englishman in a series against West Indies, achieved in 1929/30.

It is safe to say that England players in the intervening years faced slightly more threatening bowling attacks than that which now represents West Indies. England have recorded their 5th and 10th highest-ever totals against the Caribbean outfit in this series, with six different players hitting centuries. The Windies pace attack has claimed 16 wickets between them.

After two toothless displays the tourists will surely make changes, with Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul on standby for Manchester. Jerome Taylor, the top West Indian wicket-taker in Tests last year, looks set to make way - he has taken 2-251 in the series.

The tourists' batting, solid at Lord's, was even less reliable than the bowling in the second Test. They only had one rain-affected warm-up game ahead of the series and have subsequently looked ill at ease against the swinging ball.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sarwan were severely missed at Leeds and the visitors' batting line-up looks set to rely on those familiar with English conditions. Chanderpaul should be fit for Old Trafford, where he and Dwayne Bravo - top run-scorer for the tourists in the series - hit half centuries on their last visit in August 2004. Bravo trades at 3.6 to be the visitors' top run-scorer.

West Indies produced their best performance of that tour in that clash, going down by seven wickets after achieving a lead on first innings. Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison shared seven second-innings victims and both will be hoping to return to form at Lancashire headquarters.

Flintoff will push for a recall by testing his sore ankle in the championship clash with Sussex during the week, whilst Harmison has been under pressure after seemingly continuing in the same disappointing form that he showed Down Under.

The Durham man did show glimpses of better form in taking three second innings wickets on Monday and he couldn't ask for a better venue than Old Trafford to continue his rehabilitation at. He took 11 wickets there in the innings and 120 run hammering of Pakistan last July.

The English top wicket taker market for this series is wide open. Harmison and Liam Plunkett have taken six wickets each, one less than Monty Panesar and two less than Ryan Sidebottom, who was the pick of the attack in his first appearance for six years.

The two left-armers trade at 2.4 and 2.32 respectively and are assured of their places for the third Test, where Matthew Hoggard could feature after missing out at his home ground with injury. Plunkett looks set to stand down.

Old Trafford is England's second least productive ground after Trent Bridge. They have won only 31.4% of their Tests in Manchester, winning three and losing one of their last eight. That high proportion of draws is typical - 48.57% of Old Trafford Tests end without a winner.

The tourists might be hoping that the poor weather which contributes to that statistic stays around for longer than it did at Headingley. West Indies have won and lost five times in 14 visits to Old Trafford.

The tourists prepare for that clash with a three-day game against the MCC at Durham University and swift improvements are required if they are to be competitive at Old Trafford.

Disappointing tours are becoming familiar for the West Indies - their defeat to England at Lord's in July 2004 was the first in a sequence of 15 losses and three draws in 18 matches. England were the last team, other than Bangladesh or Zimbabwe, to be beaten by the men form the Caribbean overseas, in June 2000.

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