Limited overs captain Eoin Morgan has challenged his England side to show greater consistency against an \"experienced\" West Iindies team in Saturday\'s Twenty20 international Durham.
England secured the three-match International T20 Series against South Africa back in June with victory in Cardiff and head to the day-night match at the Emirates Riverside for a clash with the Windies in what will be the first time the teams have met since the 2016 World Twenty20 final in Kolkata.
Carlos Brathwaite hit four sixes off Ben Stokes to power Windies to victory in the final then, but there will be no repeat of those two going head to head in this one off clash in Durham with Stokes rested alongside Moeen Ali.
England won the Test series 2-1 and whilst Morgan expects a stronger showing from the tourists in the white-ball formats with the return of Chris Gayle, Carlos Brathwaite, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, the hosts remain favourites both in T20 as well as in the five-match One-Day International Series that follows.
"They probably have a bit more experience (than their Test squad) which is great," said Morgan. "We want to play against the best possible side available to play in order to try and improve our game.
"We're a very young side and we have a long way to go in T20 cricket. Our consistency levels have been up and down so it's all to play for tomorrow."
While acknowledging the presence of several strong ball-strikers in West Indies' line-up, Morgan said England had batting firepower of their own.
"It's one of their strengths," he said. "It's probably one of our strengths as well. It's going to be a really exciting game."
England will be without rested all-rounders Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes, who has yet to play an international on his home ground.
Sam Billings, Mason Crane and Liam Livingstone - all in the Twenty20 squad against South Africa back in June - are left out but Surrey seamer Tom Curran does get the chance to add to his two caps to date.
Windies' white-ball preparations were hampered on Wednesday when their one-day international against Ireland was washed out without a ball bowled.
The tourists will have to beat England 5-0, or 4-0 in the ODI series in order to qualify for the World Cup ahead of eighth-placed Sri Lanka, who are eight points up in the rankings.
England squad: E Morgan (capt), J Bairstow, J Ball, J Buttler, T Curran, L Dawson, A Hales, C Jordan, D Malan, L Plunkett, A Rashid, J Root, J Roy, D Willey.
West Indies squad: C Brathwaite (captain), R Beaton, C Gayle, E Lewis, J Mohammed, S Narine, A Nurse, K Pollard, R Powell, M Samuels, J Taylor, C Walton, K Williams.
England will return to action in Cardiff next summer when The SSE SWALEC hosts the 2nd IT20 of the series against India as well as the second ODI in the Series against Australia. To register for priority access to tickets for this game please CLICK HERE