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Andrew Strauss has challenged England to go out and "play positive cricket" as they make another attempt to claim their first victory of the winter in today's opening one-day international in Guyana.

The tourists have played 13 international matches without success this winter, the most recent being their emphatic six-wicket Twenty20 defeat by West Indies in Trinidad on Sunday.

It has prompted suggestions England may become more conservative in their approach when the five-match one-day series against West Indies gets under way at the Providence Stadium today.

But Middlesex left-hander Strauss (pictured right), who has overcome a hamstring injury to lead the team in his first one-day international for two years, is urging his side to set the tone with an aggressive, positive style of cricket.

"Generally, we have to play very positive cricket," he said.

"You can't hope to live in international one-day cricket these days by playing a very conservative game - I don't think that works.

"At the same time, you have to have a caveat in place that the players have to assess the conditions. In some conditions, going out and smashing the ball everywhere is not the right thing to do.

"Even the Indians and the most aggressive teams in the world sometimes rein it back when the conditions don't allow them to go out hard.

"It is about cricketers having the ability to think on their feet and react well to the conditions and that's more crucial than any game-plan you might have."

Strauss believes the squad he inherited following the dismissal of Kevin Pietersen as captain and Peter Moores as coach has been chosen more for this series in mind than the Twenty20 encounter several days ago.

They have been working for several days on their approach with team meetings and a middle practice - and now we will see the litmus test to determine whether they can perform with the same intensity.

"The Twenty20 defeat was a bitter pill to swallow as much as anything because of the way we played in that game - it wasn't the type of cricket we wanted to play on this tour," Strauss said.

"We did a pretty hard team fitness thing together, we had a middle practice and a couple of good meetings and there's a huge amount of pride and motivation for us to finish this tour on a high.

"If we can use all that positive feeling in the camp to create a good playing environment that's a great thing but it counts for nothing if we don't go out and perform on the day and that's something we all recognised and know we need to do."

England have ruled out all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who is still recovering from his hip problem and is unlikely to return until the third game of the series in Barbados on March 27.

They still have to decide whether to use uncapped Worcestershire wicketkeeper Steve Davies or the more experienced Matt Prior and have a choice between Steve Harmison and Amjad Khan in attack.

West Indies will make a late decision about captain Chris Gayle, who has been sidelined for a week with hamstring problems sustained in the final Test at Trinidad.

Gayle is keen not to rush back and jeopardise his participation in later matches in the series and, if he fails to play, Denesh Ramdin will again captain the side.

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Sporting Life / Eurosport