In what is a most shocking squad announced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), England’s leading wicket-takers Stuart Broad and James Anderson have been left-out of the upcoming West Indies Test series.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday announced the 16 member squad for the upcoming Test series against West Indies.
And in what most shocking about the squad, the two most experienced and leading wicket-takers of the England team in Stuart Broad and James Anderson have not been picked for the Caribbean 3 match Test series.
Other than two legendary pacer, players like Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan and Sam Billings have also been excluded from the team.
All three of the batsmen didn’t had a good Ashes series earlier in January, where Dawid Malan scored only 244 runs at an average of only 24.40, while Jos Buttler only scored 107 runs from 4 matches. Sam Billings got opportunity to feature in only 1 match for the England team against Australia.
Joe Root will be leading the line still for England, after questions were raised on his captaincy during the Ashes series. Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Ollie Pope are some of the senior members of the team.
24-years-old Yorkshire bowler Matthew Fisher and Durham batsman Alex Lees have been handed their debut camp for England team and will be hoping to make their Test debut in the series as well.
Bowling department will be led by Chris Woakes and Mark Wood along with Saqib Mahmood among the notables.
The England cricket team’s tour to West Indies have been divided in two parts as the 5 T20Is were played in January, while the 3 match Test series will be played from the 8th fo March. In between, West Indies team is currently touring India for limited overs series.
England Test squad for West Indies Test series:
Joe Root (captain), Jonathan Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Matthew Fisher.
