England lose Robinson for Test series opener

Robinson hurt his back while bowling in England's warm-up match against a Cricket West Indies President's XI last week and has failed to recover in time to be named in the 12-man squad for the opening Test that starts in Antigua on Tuesday.

With veteran quicks James Anderson and Stuart Broad left out of the touring party completely, it leaves England suddenly short on quality seamers for the series opener.

Mark Wood and Chris Woakes look certain to feature, while fellow seamers Craig Overton and uncapped Saqib Mahmood are likely to battle it out with spinner Jack Leach for the final two bowling spots.

Robinson picked up 11 wickets at an average of 25.54 during the recent Ashes series against Australia and Woakes knows his absence will be felt.

"Ollie is a talented bowler. Naturally he'll be a big miss," Woakes said.

"He's shown in his short Test career so far that he's certainly got the skills and the ability to do good things in the format. At the same time, it gives people opportunities.

"We're trying to win games of cricket here, but it does give that chance to someone to potentially make their Test debut who's been waiting in the wings for quite a while to show what they can do at this level."

The two teams will battle it out for the newly-created Richards-Botham trophy, named after West Indies great Sir Vivian Richards and England star Sir Ian Botham.

The Richards-Botham trophy will be contested across three Tests in the upcoming Caribbean series that form a part of the ICC World Test Championship, and all future Test series between the two teams.

England squad for first Test: Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

England Men's Test Tour of the Caribbean

First Test: March 8-12 in Antigua
Second Test: March 16-20 in Barbados
Third Test: March 24-28 in Grenada