After having a wobble earlier in the season, when England beat South Africa, nobody see the West Indies troubling England ahead of the series in the second half of the summer.
But a fantastic West Indies performance at Headingley, see the teams head to London for a series deciding test at Lords.
In wet and cloudy conditions, West Indies struggled to adapt with only opener Powell making 39 out of a score of 123 all out and Ben Stokes taking 6 wickets and Jimmy Anderson taking his 500th test wicket.
England faired no better with the top 4 batsman, only making 20 runs between them. Much scrutiny followed the innings of Westley and Stoneman, who, having come into the team recently, are under pressure to make the squad for the Ashes.
Stokes, contributed a superb 60 with help from Malan and Stuart Broad who contributed 38 to a total of 194.
The Windies faired a little better in the second innings with Headingley hero Hope making 62 as they left England needing just over 100 to win the series, which was completed on Saturday afternoon to a full house in London.
England, head off to Australia to defend the Ashes series, with a few headaches still around. England coach, Trevor Bayliss, admitted afterwards that when it comes to naming the squad at the end of September, new faces are unlikely to be selected given the England lions are also touring at the same time, if the full squad needs to top-up.
The West Indies, who still haven’t won a test series in England since 1988, change format now for the 5 one-day internationals to be played. The one-off T20 at Durham last week was won by the Windies to give them a boost ahead of the 50 over series.
