After missing the Caribbean tour with the national team earlier this year, James Anderson & Stuart Broad have been recalled into the final playing eleven that will take the field against New Zealand on June 2. The legendary duo who have been a nightmare for batsmen were pretty vocal about their omission from the Caribbean tour. With Brendon McCullum as the head coach of England and Ben Stokes as the newly appointed skipper, it is only a matter of time to test the challenge that Broad & Anderson are up to.
Apart from 39-year-old Anderson & 35-year-old Broad, Matthew Potts looks like a potential candidate to share the workload with the two talismans of English cricket. Earlier this week, head coach Brendon McCullum made it very clear that he wants to rid his team of fear, just like the way he used to play his cricket. On the other hand, Stuart Broad also weighed in with his statements that England needs to play a very exciting brand of cricket just to garner more eyeballs for the red ball format. Recently, English cricket has been plagued by a lot of injury concerns that have somehow weakened their bowling attack. Quality pacers like Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Olly Stone, Saqib Mahmood, and Matt Fisher have all been on the sidelines due to persisting injury concerns.
Earlier this week, Ben Stokes clearly stated that former test skipper Joe Root will be resuming regular duties as a no. 4 batsman. It is high time that England needs to change their fortunes. The World Test Championship points are up for grabs and England has been reeling with just one win in 17 test matches. A lot to look forward to for the English side which now rebooted its approach to their test playing skills.
England Playing XI
Ben Stokes (c), Zack Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad and James Anderson
