England to sweep

England will enter the final game of its three-match Test series against the West Indies lacking the pace and swing of James Anderson who has been rested, much to his displeasure.

Having won the first two games by comfortable margins, head coach Andrew Flower sees no reason to risk Anderson, who he described as having "a few niggles", in a dead rubber.

The Lancashire bowler may be disappointed to miss out on what is likely to be easy pickings, but Flower has his sights firmly set on the second series of the English summer when the South Africans will present a much tougher challenge; especially as a victory for the touring side would see it replace England as the world's No 1 Test team.

Anderson's fellow paceman, Stuart Broad, may also find himself on the sidelines if Flower feels England's T20 captain is carrying too heavy a workload in a packed summer schedule.

Such a move would leave the way open for Graham Onions and Steven Finn to resume their stop-start Test careers. Both are in fine fettle: Finn bowed with hostility in his recent county game for Middlesex, while Onions made a few eyes water in Durham's outing against Lancashire, ending with match figures of 11 wickets for 95 runs, albeit in a losing cause.

Windies head coach Ottis Gibson has warned his players that the absence of Anderson, at the very least, will not constitute any respite against the home team's attack. The prospect of Finn's pace and steepling bounce allied to Onions' wicket-to-wicket lbw-snaffling style, will mean there are plenty of maroon caps hoping they don't bat first on what is usually a pretty lively track. Apart from those two changes, only one of which is so far set in stone, England will probably field an unchanged side from Trent Bridge.

For the West Indies, changes are likely. In addition to a couple of pace bowers - Fidel Edwards and Tino Best - being added to the squad following series-ending injuries to Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel, coach Gibson also has the 'mystery spinner' Sunil Narine at his disposal for the first time in England. Gibson, though, appears to have ruled out Narine's involvement until the one-day series which follows the Tests, pointing out the bowler has never played in English conditions and is yet to win a Test cap for his country, although he has performed well in the shorter format.

However, the Windies' bowling isn't the problem: it's the lack of application and appalling shot selection by the batsmen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, captain Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels being the honorable exceptions, that has condemned the team to what is likely to be a 3-0 sweep for the host.

Paul Tomic can be contacted at paultomic@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/07/2012 page23)