Former England captain Michael Vaughan wants England to pick James Anderson ahead of Stuart Broad for the first Test against West Indies at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton with Jofra Archer and Mark wood as the other two pacers.
England have one more pacer besides the aforementioned four - Chris Woakes - but only three will be making it to the playing XI with spinner Dominic Bess being the other bowling option.
Earlier, Michael Atherton, speaking on Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, picked both the Anderson and Broad for the opener, and so did former skipper Nasser Hussain, but Vaughan was one between the two alongside Wood and Archer.
“I’ve said for a while, I’d go for both [Archer and Wood],” Vaughan told Cricbuzz. “Anderson and Broad, for me, I just see one of them playing. Jimmy Anderson plays, for me. I’ve got a sense that they’ll probably go with both of them but you got to remember what this England Test match side are building towards. As a player, you want to be in this first team on Wednesday. You’ve been in the bubble for two weeks, you’ve been in the lockdown for three months.”
Earlier it was expected that one between Archer and Wood would be used on a rotation basis given that the team will be playing six Tests over the next seven weeks - three more ahainst Pakistan which will begin from August 5.
“This first Test match team, particularly the bowling attack, England will say they are going to rotate over the course of the next six (seven) weeks. Of course, they will. You want to be in that team, it’s a big miss. I personally would go Wood and Archer and one of Anderson and Broad will miss out. That seems to be going towards a controversy [but] it’s just the way I will go with the Test match team at the minute.”
