Of course when players retire, or leave the game for a while, there are always those ready to take their places. There will be three new faces on the squad since February who will all want to prove themselves and cement their places before the roving travellers arrive back to try and reclaim their positions.

Amy Kenealy, Joanne McKinley and Cathy Murphy have worked hard so far this season to make themselves valuable additions to the team.

Having played West Indies only once before, and that being approximately five years ago, I personally don’t know much about them. I’ve been told bits and pieces about the last time the girls played them, but I think they are a somewhat unknown quantity. Their last international match was in the 2005 World Cup, and much has probably changed since then – only five of their 16-strong squad has been capped before.

This is our opportunity to see what stage we are at, to try and prove that we are there or thereabouts when it comes to teams that are just a few places above us in the world rankings, to see what we need to work on, and to hopefully regain a bit of pride.

So far as individual players go; Clare Shillington has been prolific with the bat in the domestic league so far this season, and Marianne Herbert extremely miserly with the ball. We will be hoping that both of them can carry this run of form into the series.

We are also excited to see the return of Melissa Scott-Hayward into the fold after a gruelling few weeks of examinations.

Personally, I hope to be able to juggle my advent into the position of captain for the series with keeping up my own playing form. Luckily I have some experienced senior players to help me in the shape my vice-captain Nicki Coffey and former captain Shillington. First of all though, we need the weather to do us a favour and clear up so we can get the series under way tomorrow!