Beating this West Indies side doesn’t mean very much at all when you put it into that context, writes Simon Barnes in the Times. England have beaten a West Indies side that doesn’t even count as a shadow of the team that ruled the world. Soon England must play Australia. It will be an entirely different proposition.
It’s been heart-breaking to see a West Indies team so inept: a team ragged-arsed and half-baked, who didn’t want to be here. England beat them in three days and by ten wickets, and so they bloody well should have done. West Indies were a team without heart, as woeful a sight as I have seen in sport.
England's selectors rarely receive plaudits but they should be congratulated for the team they picked for the first Test against West Indies, writes Angus Fraser in the Independent. The presence of Ravi Bopara, Graham Onions, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann has given the England team a more vibrant, energetic and youthful appearance. The enthusiasm and excitement of these players, says Fraser, have rubbed off on the team's more seasoned campaigners.
Vic Marks believes that whole a show of grit from men outside West Indies' big three of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul held up England, that longed-for West Indian renaissance is still a way off. Read on in the Guardian.
In his Guardian blog Richard Williams looks at how Test debutant Tim Bresnan waited almost three days to be noticed yet wasn't the first Yorkshireman to make his mark slowly for England.
Watching Graeme Swann bowl and pick up the Man-of-the-Match award at Lord's, Simon Hughes reckons he is a showman in the mould of Shane Warne. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Hughes says that Swann showed how important it is to bowl with your personality, as well as with the ball.
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