ST JOHN'S, Antigua:

West Indies will look to make a winning start when they bowl off their three-match one-day international series against England today.

Captain Dwayne Bravo believes it will be a "hard fought and close series" but is backing his team to come up with the goods, when the contest gets going at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground this morning.

"This is a very important series for us. We are playing against a higher ranked team and as a young one-day team, we're looking to go forward and gain momentum, we know they will test us," Bravo said.

tough conditions

"We had a decent tour of New Zealand, where we were able to draw the series, we faced some tough conditions as an inexperienced team with some of our senior players missing. It is important that we play to our true potential. I expect a very good game tomorrow."

The 30-year-old all-rounder, who is set to play his 156th ODI, was speaking after the West Indies had a full training session at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground. He outlined that the series will signal the start of the road to the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.

"This gives us a chance to see where we're at. I don't want to say this is preparation for the Twenty20 World Cup. These are three one-day internationals, and we have the 50-over World Cup round the corner as well.

This is gearing us up as a one-day team to see where we are and then after that we will focus on the T20 games in Barbados. But as the one-day captain it is important that we see how well we can do against England in this format here in Antigua," Bravo said.

The second ODI will be on Sunday followed by the third match next Wednesday.