West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach believes the absence of England captain Joe Root and changed batting line-up, ahead of the upcoming series, could serve as a double edge sword for the Caribbean team.

Root will miss the first Test of the series to be at the birth of his second child and the pacer could face only two of the top six in a batting line-up he dominated in the Caribbean last year.  Newcomers Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, and Ollie Pope are set to join the line-up in Southampton along with Joe Denly, who played the second and third Tests of England's Caribbean tour last year.

“It’s different conditions now, we are in England this time around.  I see England has also made some changes to their batting line-up so it’s all about assessing each batsman and following-up their weaknesses and exploiting them,” Roach told members of the media via a Zoom press conference on Sunday.

“Of course, I would love to have the same batting line because it’s what we got used to for the last few series but there are a few changes so it’s all about sticking to the game plan,” he added.

“A Test match without Root, the fantastic stats he has, is going to be a bit of an advantage for us.  He's one that keeps the England batting together, he's done fantastically for them for the last couple of years,” he added.

"Without him, it is a bit of an advantage for us, but also a little bit of a disadvantage because there are some new guys coming in that we obviously have to work out and see what their weaknesses are and try to exploit them. So it goes 50-50, but once we get stuck in and hit our straps and put the balls in the right area I think we stand a very good chance of going out there and performing well."