Jonathan Trott insists that England’s players are wearing the world number one tag lightly as, for the first time, they head into a season at the top of the global rankings.

England face West Indies in the opening Test at Lord’s today at the start of a summer which will also bring a series against South Africa.

Andrew Strauss’s team endured a moderate winter with defeat to Pakistan in the UAE and a drawn series in Sri Lanka. Victory in the final Test in Colombo enabled them to retain their number one spot but the wobble raised some questions in the media about Strauss and his team.

They need to bounce back this summer.

But while fully aware of that, Trott, who along with Warwickshire team-mate Ian Bell will be in England’s top order against West Indies, has revealed that, within the dressing room it will simply be business as usual.

“We don’t feel any pressure,” Trott said. “All that sort of stuff is built up in the press.

“It doesn’t mean anything to us.

“We are a really tight group and we know each other and trust each other and just get on with things.

“It is the first English season we have started as number one but that doesn’t mean we will be doing anything differently.

“We will just concentrate on keeping doing the things that got us to number one in the first place.

“We improved a lot in the last Test in Sri Lanka and won it and that has given us a bit of momentum.

“We knew we had to pull our socks up and we did that.

“There is so much international cricket these days that no side is going to win every Test and every series. But good players respond the right way to a setback – and we have good players.