The West Indies will be without several key players when they start their England tour today with a three-day fixture against Leicestershire County at Grace Road.
Head coach John Dyson believes the match will be "great opportunity" for all members of the team.
Regular captain Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards are on Indian Premier League (IPL) commitments in South Africa while batting star Shivnarine Chanderpaul and fast-bowling ace Jerome Taylor are still in the Caribbean, both given extra time to recover from injury issues.
Three-day fixture
Speaking after yesterday's training session at the match venue, Dyson noted that the three-day fixture will give players a chance to push for a place in the team in the first Test against England at Lord's from May 6-10.
"We have a number of new, exciting players who will be eagerly looking forward to playing in the matches and making an impact. We have two Test matches and everyone will be looking forward to being part of that," Dyson said.
West Indies enter the tour on the back of a Test-series win over the English in the Caribbean and buoyed by that rare series triumph, the Caribbean side will be anxious to keep the momentum.
"I again anticipate a hard-fought series. We have shown we can compete against England and even beat them. It will be a great series and we have the belief that we can win. It is good to see matches that are hard fought and it will create a lot of interest. The players enjoy the contests and, overall, it is very good for cricket."
Retain the Wisden Trophy
The West Indies will be looking to retain the Wisden Trophy they won by defeating England 1-0 in the Digicel Test Series in the Caribbean in February and March and Dyson is bracing for an England fightback.
Apart from the match against Leicestershire, the Windies will also have warm-up matches against Essex on April 25-27 and against the England Lions from April 30 to May 3.
The first Test is at Lord's from May 6-10 and the second Test will be at Riverside Ground at Chester-le-Street, starting May 14
WEST INDIES (from) - Denesh Ramdin (captain), Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Dale Richards, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Narsingh Deonarine, Brendan Nash, Darren Sammy, Dave Bernard, Sulieman Benn, Lionel Baker, Nelon Pascal, Andrew Richardson.