England has announced its 13 men squad for 1st Test against West Indies. The match will be held at Southampton from 8th july.
Ben Stokes is going to be England’s 81st test captain and the first all-rounder to take charge since Andrew Flintoff. Off spinner Dom Bess is in the squad ahead of Moeen Ali and Jack leach. Bess has got a good record as he has taken 11 wickets in four tests at an average of 29.72.
Joe Root will miss because of birth of his second child. Since England has not played test cricket from January due to coronavirus plus lockdown, the pace bowling attack is fully fit and ready to deliver at its best . Pace bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are in the pace bowling attack and three of them will likely play among these. Sam Curran is also among the Reserves as he fell ill this week during a practice match.
England squad:
Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer,
Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad,Rory Burns,
Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley,
Joe Denly, Ollie Pope,
Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.
Reserves:
James Bracey, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes (wk),
Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood,
Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, Olly Stone.
Ben Foakes is the reserve wicketkeeper. Dan Lawrence and James Bracey are in the reserves for batting cover this means Johny Bairstow doesn’t stand in the queue. Moeen Ali is available for tests but he is not in the 13 men squad or in the reserves. He was dropped from tests last summer during the Ashes.
The three match test series is going to be played behind closed doors and in a bio-secure environment . The matches are going to be played at Southampton and Manchester.
