Rain delayed the start of play which eventually commenced three hours after the scheduled start, with England’s stand-in skipper Ben Stokes winning the toss and electing to bat.
Three overs were bowled, with Shannon Gabriel dismissing Dominic Sibley for a fourth-ball duck before rain intervened again. Play would resume, eventually getting in 82 minutes and 17.4 overs with the hosts 1-35 at stumps.
Rory Burns (20no) and first drop Joe Denly (14no) were unbeaten at stumps, navigating the conditions and West Indies attack.
Despite the lack of playing action, the day was a memorable one marking Test cricket’s return but also with some of the on-field gestures to mark the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
In a show of solidarity, players, support staff and officials took a knee before the first ball, while the West Indies players all wore a black glove and held their fists high in the air while kneeling.
West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick said: “That is something that we met as a group and we discussed.
“That’s something that we wanted to do, we wanted to make a statement and we wanted to be different to everybody else.
“That was our way of showing our support to the Black Lives Matter campaign.
“We felt like we wanted to do something different, we felt if we wanted to make a bigger statement we should wear the black glove and it worked as people are talking about it.”
England assistant coach Graham Thorpe said that it was “important to show solidarity with the West Indies”.
“The bottom line is that we feel that there is no room for racism in our sport and from the England team perspective today it was good to show that solidarity with the West Indies,” Thorpe said.
Meanwhile, England announced that Stuart Broad wasn’t in their XI at the coin toss, preferring to go with James Anderson, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in the only selection shock.