WILL FRAINE insists England should not dwell on their first Test defeat in Barbados.

The Yorkshire batsman expects Joe Root and co to bounce back strongly when they meet the West Indies again in Antigua, starting today.

Fraine, a new White Rose recruit from Notts ahead of 2019, has described England’s first-innings capitulation to 77 as “one of those days”.

He heaped praise on the hosts, though, who surprised many with the likes of Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich and second-innings double centurion Jason Holder all starring with wickets and runs.

England must now win the last two Tests to clinch a series victory, but Fraine feels it is a realistic possibility.

“Barbados was interesting viewing wasn’t it," he said. “Fair play to the West Indies. I thought they played incredibly well. Kemar Roach bowled well and Shannon Gabriel doesn’t look all that fun to face.

“It was just one of those days for the batters. We all have them in cricket. That’s how I look at it.

“They’ll be disappointed. But looking at that England team, they don’t seem to stay down for long. Whenever they get rolled, in New Zealand or wherever, they seem to come back stronger.

“I’m sure they’ll put it right in the next Test.

“But the West Indies, jeez! Jason Holder and Shane Dowrich batted incredibly. They didn’t look worried at all against a good attack.”

He continued: “As a batter, and I’ve experienced it myself, you just have those days where everything goes wrong.

“Look at the dismissals in the first innings. Stokes’s was just clipping the top of the bail. On another day, that doesn’t get given. Rory Burns played his so late. I didn’t think he did anything wrong. He just played it too late, and it bounces up and hits his stumps. There were a few unlucky dismissals.

“I have faith in them to bounce back quickly.”

Criticisms over team selection, playing two spinners and leaving Stuart Broad out, and a lack of meaningful preparation were thrown at England in the aftermath of the Test.

Fraine, however, said: “It’s very easy in cricket to overcomplicate things and read into things too much.

“The way I see it with the preparation is that a lot of these players have played lots of international cricket. Rory Burns and Sam Curran are perhaps the exceptions, but Curran has had a great start to his Test career and Burns played nicely in the second innings for his 80-odd.

“Preparation-wise, it wasn’t that big a deal because they’ve all played a lot of cricket all around the world and know what needs to be done.

“Team selection, looking back you’d have wanted Broad in the side.

“It was weird because I saw he’d got a hat-trick in the warm-up game so thought he must be going pretty well. Then he gets left out.

“But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m pretty confident they’ll play him in this game."

Of Yorkshire club-mate Joe Root, he added: “Rooty tried a lot of things, including his leggies.

“We were all sat watching it after training actually. We were having a little social and catch-up after training, and none of the lads had ever seen him bowl them before.

“We were joking that he was bowling quicker than a lot of our bowlers at 73-74mph.”

Given this is England’s final Test series before the summer Ashes, they could do with fulfilling Fraine’s expectations of an upturn in fortunes during the next fortnight or so.

He added: “Momentum is a big thing in cricket. You hear players talking about it all the time in competitions and series. And they’ll be wanting to pick some momentum up heading into that series even though it’s a few months away yet.

“Australia are never going to be easy. They may not be on top of their game, but they still have plenty of quality.

“They need to put in some performances in the next Test, but I have every faith in them to do it."