England vs West Indies 1st Test Prediction and Betting Tips: Three bets for series opener

England will say goodbye to a legend when they get the Test match summer under way against the West Indies at Lord's on Wednesday.

James Anderson will make his final appearance for the hosts, more than two decades after bursting on to the scene at the London venue against Zimbabwe.

No pace bowler in the history of the game has taken more wickets than the 41-year-old and England will want to ensure Anderson goes out on a high with victory over a West Indies side ranked eighth in the world.

The West Indies have some exciting young players coming through the ranks and Kirk McKenzie is one of their standouts.

McKenzie impressed in the Windies' last away Test series in Australia, making scores of 50, 26, 21 and 41 in four knocks.

The 23-year-old topped the tourists' scorecard in three of those innings and could give English audiences a glimpse of his talents this summer.

Surpassing a match runs line of 44.5 at Lord's should be within McKenzie's powers.

Stokes and McCullum have stuck with Zak Crawley when things have not been going to plan for the Kent opener, and they will undoubtedly do so again should Crawley have another lean summer.

Crawley averages 32 at Test level, so if he were to replicate that across both innings at HQ he would fall short of a match runs line of 65.5.

While he is not known as a T20 batsman, Crawley's form for Kent in this year's Blast is a slight concern as he has failed to score more than nine runs in five of his last six outings for the Spitfires.

Crawley has scored 322 runs for Kent in this year's County Championship but 238 of those came in one innings and he may struggle in the first Test of the summer.

England’s Test team has undergone a dramatic transformation under the guidance of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and the pair will hope their side can continue their progress in home series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer.

After the drama of last summer's Ashes and a tough winter in India, the two series should give Stoke and McCullum the chance to plan for the future.

The decision that this will be James Anderson's final Test match says as much but England's all-time leading wicket-taker may still have one last match-winning performance in him judged by a seven-wicket haul for Lancashire against Nottinghamshire last week.

Sentiment alone makes a live contender to be named player of the match in his final Test but the retiring legend Anderson could head off into the sunset in style.