Jonathan Agnew column

Fourth Test, Barbados: West Indies v England
Dates: 26th Feb-2 March Start time: 1400 GMT Venue: Kensington Oval
Coverage: Listen to Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 Longwave, 5 Live sports extra, the Red Button and BBC Sport website. Text commentary on BBC Sport website. Also live on Sky Sports.

By Jonathan Agnew
BBC cricket correspondent

It would be a huge call to bring Rashid in at number six and partner Graeme Swann as the second spinner

After a week of politics and shifting through the fall-out of the Stanford crisis, it is great to be looking forward to cricket again and, in particular, watching England try to get back into the series.

What we do know now is that the West Indies are much improved on their shambolic state of a couple of years ago.

Their Australian coach, John Dyson, has instilled a discipline that has scarcely been a feature of recent West Indian teams, and this has manifested itself in the manner his bowlers outperformed England in Jamaica and, of course, the determined batting effort which saved the second Test in Antigua.

There is still an air of vulnerability about them, but the presence of Brendan Nash in the middle order should not be underestimated.

Whether he becomes a top Test batsman or not remains to be seen.

But having been brought up in the tough school of Australian cricket, he brings a steely defiance and attitude that definitely made an impact at the Recreation Ground.

That said, England would probably have won there had Andrew Flintoff been fit, and it is stating the obvious to say that his absence in Barbados creates a real headache for the selectors.

In the past, Flintoff has been replaced by a batsman at number six, with England playing four bowlers.

But now, faced with the situation of having to win here to have any hope of taking the series, can just four bowlers - with a bit of Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen thrown in - be enough to take 20 wickets on what will probably be a pretty flat surface at the Kensington Oval?

Before I go on, I might as well say that I suspect England will do just that, with either Ian Bell returning to number six or Ravi Bopara winning the nod.

606: DEBATE If Swann isn't fit then I think England have to go with Rashid, as Monty has been struggling badly Spurs_dplatt

Had Matt Prior been available, there might have been a slim possibility of him batting there - but not Tim Ambrose.

There will be people backing Ravi Bopara ahead of Bell.

But if you really had to make the choice between the two - and bearing in mind that Bopara's bowling is no more penetrative than Collingwood's - I would prefer a man who averages nearly 50 in that position, with four centuries.

England's quicks did not bowl well at the West Indies' long list of left-handers at Antigua, so I would bring Ryan Sidebottom back for this game and, for the first time in his young career, Adil Rashid will be seriously considered as an option.

It would be a huge call to bring him in at number six and partner Graeme Swann as the second spinner.

But should England find themselves in dire straits in Trinidad -and still without Flintoff - it could be the time to give him his chance.