The new dawn of the red ball in England has seen two uncapped 23-year-olds get their first chance at international glory and a second chance given to the country’s two most experienced bowlers of all time, as the team look to improve his recently moribund fortunes under the stewardship of Brendon McCullum.
As widely watched by new team captain Ben Stokes, the 13-man squad for the first two Tests of a three-game series against fellow New Zealanders McCullum at Lord’s and Trent Bridge next month , includes both James Anderson and Stuart Broad. , respectively first and third on England’s most capped list of all time.
They return to the fold after being left out of the squad which visited the West Indies in March, while England have a long list of absentee bowlers due to injuries, with Ollie Robinson, recently intoxicated by food, not being not considered suitable for selection.
Yorkshire’s Harry Brook, who with 758 carries in eight County Championship rounds at an average of 151.6 has been the outstanding national batsman of the English summer so far, gets his first test call – he made his T20 debut in January – alongside Matthew of Durham Potts, whose current run of 35 wickets is 11 more than any other bowler in both divisions.
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Rob Key, managing director of England men’s cricket, said the pair had been “awarded for outstanding starts to the county season and deserved the opportunity to make a claim at this level”.
More recently, Potts took 11 wickets as Durham beat Glamorgan last week, posting a career-best seven-for-40 in the second innings. “I tend not to try too hard to read them,” he said after that set of reports suggesting he was in line for a test call. “It would be a dream to be chosen and obviously playing Test cricket is something I aspire to do.”
New Zealand won the inaugural Test World Championship last year, when they also occasionally outclassed England by winning a two-game Test series, and currently sit third in the Test standings, although ahead of England’s sixth team, but Key said he expects this year’s meetings to be tightly contested.
“It’s the start of a new era for our test team under the leadership of Ben and Brendon,” he said. “With a mix of youth and experience, we have selected an exciting team that can compete with New Zealand. It promises to be an exciting series, and I can’t wait for the team to start against a very good side. This is a fascinating prospect for anyone connected with the sport in this country.
The team was selected by a six-man panel consisting of Key, McCullum and Stokes as well as ECB performance director Mo Bobat, head scout James Taylor and head of player identification , David Short.
England Test Team: Ben Stokes (Durham, captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Jack Leach (Somerset), Alex Lees (Durham), Craig Overton (Somerset), Matthew Potts (Durham), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire).
theguardian Gt