5 reasons why England vs WI will be a competitive series

The return of big names makes this Windies team look much stronger

Chris Gayle is back in the side after putting WICB disagreements behind him

Post the ICC World Cup in 2015, many big stars ruled themselves out of playing for the country due to contract issues with the WICB.

With things slowly moving in the right direction, a few big names have returned to the fold.

Chris Gayle is the biggest attraction. His charisma, along with his ferocious batting abilities are a huge bonus for the Windies. And Gayle, although a bit rusty, has looked dominating in the one-off T20I and the first ODI.

His form is a huge positive, and the Windies will be hoping he stays in for longer periods of time, and score more runs. The inclusion of Marlon Samuels adds much needed experience to this middle order.

Samuels is known to be very calm-headed in pressure situations, something this rather young and inexperienced batting line-up could use. He takes up balls but has in it him to bat long and more importantly cover up for the dot balls consumed.

The inclusion of these two stalwarts will likely give the England team some headaches, and overall, help in reducing the gulf between the two sides, making the series more competitive.