Strauss will captain England at Lord's

After a poor winter, in which England were whitewashed 5-0 in the Ashes, Graveney said it was important to get the winning habit back soon.

"It's vitally important to start the season with a victory.

"It's important for Peter Moores in his first match as coach, for the fans, for the players, for everybody to start well," Graveney said.

It will be interesting to see how they react to the absence of Brian Lara David Graveney

The first Test of a four-match series starts at Lord's on Thursday in what is Moores' first match as coach after succeeding Duncan Fletcher.

England will be led by Andrew Strauss after Michael Vaughan was ruled out with a finger injury.

"It's fair to say the winter did not go as well as we would have liked and a win at Lord's would make all the difference to starting the summer in the right way," Graveney added.

England are still rated as second in the world in the Test rankings with West Indies a lowly eighth.

And they are rebuilding too after the retirement of Brian Lara and resignation of coach Bennett King.

"It will be interesting to see how they react to the absence of Brian Lara," Graveney said.

"When you have an outstanding player - and Brian Lara is one of the best players the world has ever seen - there sometimes becomes a reliance on him.

"Take him out of that equation and everybody is going to roll up their sleeves and share the responsibility.