With the series already lost, England begin the Third Test in Saint Lucia on Saturday bidding to salvage some scraps of salvation from what has been a bruising and humiliating defeat at the hands of a resurgent West Indies.

For the tourists, last week’s crushing loss in Antigua was a case of same old story, England losing the toss and with it, seemingly all chance of victory when enduring the worst of the conditions with the bat.

Throughout the last 12 months it has been just the opposite for England with captain Joe Root winning every toss in impressive series wins over India and Sri Lanka and with it, the Three Lions being able to dictate the game on their own terms.

For regular readers of this column, I acknowledge that this will sound like a broken record but the point I’m trying to make is that for all England have been bad over the last few weeks, and they have been woefully bad at times, a change of luck at the coin toss and the visitors could easily claim a consolation victory here, though it would take a brave punter to take the 4/5 on offer.

The likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali all thrive on getting on the front foot, literally in most cases, and if England can bat first this week and get ahead of the game, those confidence players are likely to be seen in a much better light.