BIRMINGHAM: Mark Stoneman will be the lone change to England’s side for the start of the historic day-night first Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston on Thursday, captain Joe Root announced.

Surrey opener Stoneman, 30, was all set for a Test debut the moment a 13-man squad was unveiled for the first game of the three-match series after England dropped his struggling former Durham team-mate Keaton Jennings following a recent 3-1 home Test series win over South Africa.

Stoneman apart, the team is the same that beat South Africa by 177 runs in the series-clinching fourth Test at Old Trafford earlier this month.

Warwickshire all-rounder Chris Woakes, only recently fit following a side injury, misses out on the chance to play in the first day/night Test in England, despite the match being played on his home ground.

And there was no place either for uncapped Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane.

The in-form Toby Roland-Jones kept his place as third seamer ahead of Woakes, with Stoneman the 12th man to partner Alastair Cook at the top of the order since former captain Andrew Strauss retired five years ago.

“Chris Woakes and Mason Crane are the two guys who will miss out,” Root told reporters at Edgbaston on Wednesday. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the rest of the guys to experience a pink ball Test match for the first time and we’re really excited.”

Turning his attentions to Stoneman, Root added: “He’s obviously got a huge amount of runs under his belt, this season in particular, and in previous seasons as well.”

Most England players’ experience of playing under lights with a pink ball extends to a single round of County Championship matches earlier this season.

“There are obviously different challenges it brings, different times of the day to what you would normally expect with Test cricket,” the 26-year-old Root said. “It’s ultimately still the same fundamentals of cricket and you just need to make sure when those difficult periods crop up we respond well. It will be interesting to see how the week pans out.”

England beat South Africa 3-1 in their first series of the summer and starts as firm favourites against the West Indies, who are No 8 in the Test rankings and have lost six straight series.

The tourists are also without key players, such as Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy, because of a previous dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.

West Indies captain Jason Holder, meanwhile, believes his pacemen can help the ‘huge underdogs’ make life uncomfortable for England.

Leading British bookmaker William Hill have Root’s men as 1/5-on favourites to triumph in Birming­ham, with the West Indies 12/1 against.

The reason for the huge disparity in the odds is not hard to find — since 1997, excluding matches against the often struggling Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, the West Indies have won just three out of 86 away Tests, losing 66 and drawing 17, while their last Test win on English soil was at Edgbaston back in 2000.

Holder believes an emerging pace attack can trouble an England top order where only Cook and Root are currently certain of their places.

“I think our bowling has really carried us throughout the last few Test matches,” said Holder. “Shannon Gabriel has had a pretty decent year; I haven’t been doing too badly, and we’ve got young Alzarri Joseph and Miguel Cummins.

“Kemar Roach is actually showing some very, very good form — so I’m really confident in our bowling.”

But while the West Indies’ original ‘fearsome foursome’ pace attack of the 1980s was backed up by batsmen like Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Vivian Richards and Clive Lloyd, the present top order are still making their way in international cricket.

“It’s just for our batsmen to make some runs,” said Holder. “We’ve struggled in the past, primarily with our batting, but on this tour we’ve been doing well.”

Four West Indies batsmen score hundreds in their floodlit warm-up match against Derbyshire.

Teams:

ENGLAND: Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Tom Westley, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Toby Roland-Jones, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

WEST INDIES (probable): Kraigg Brathwaite, Kieran Powell, Kyle Hope, Shai Hope, Roston Chase, Jermaine Blackwood, Shane Dowrich, Jason Holder (captain), Kemar Roach, Alzarri Joseph, Shannon Gabriel.

Umpires: Sundaram Ravi (India) and Marais Erasmus (South Africa).

TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand).

Match referee: David Boon (Australia).

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017