The first Test match against West Indies finished sooner than it should have but it did not matter, everything was eclipsed by a single news that a legend was about to retire. Now that all goodbye rituals for James Anderson have ended, it’s time for the English team to get back to the business. To mark that, England has announced their playing XI for the second Test match against West Indies two days before the match, as has become a tradition for the team now.
Trent Bridge Test will be the first time in 12 years that the English men will don whites without the Anderson-Broad duo amidst them. With the spearhead pacers gone, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes will try to fit into their shoes. Wood was added to the squad a few days ago to fill the spot left empty by James Anderson. The last time the fiery pacer played a Test match was against India in March this year. Wood was left out of the initial squad to allow him to rest after returning from the T20 World Cup. Rob Key, England’s managing director, while announcing the squad said when asked about Mark Wood’s absence,
“Once you come out of T20 cricket, then you’re going into Test cricket very quickly… there’s a period there where you can’t just throw someone into a Test match. Rest is probably not the right term but we’ll look to make him available for selection for the second and third Tests, hopefully.”
Wood’s return means that Dillon Pennington will have to wait more for his Test debut. He will watch the game from the sidelines with Matthew Potts who was also hoping to get a call-up after Anderson’s farewell.
Gus Atkinson will complete the pace troika and share the responsibilities with Woakes and Wood, having proven his mettle in the Lord’s Test match where he took 12 wickets to help his team trounce West Indies. Shoaib Bashir will carry on to run the affairs of the spin department solely. This makes sense as Bashir did not get to bowl a single delivery thanks to the magnificence of the fast bowlers who required no assistance doing their job. Trent Bridge is also expected to offer nearly the same conditions, so a solitary tweaker would suffice for the hosts.
The rest of the team remains unchanged with newbie Jamie Smith taking the mitts and Ben Stokes leading the Three Lions.
England XI for the second Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir.
England lead the series by 1-0 and would fancy sealing the affair in this very game. The last time West Indies played at Trent Bridge was back in 2012 when they lost the match by 9 wickets to the hosts. Now they have a chance to settle the score and rejuvenate the series but if they think it will be an easy task to accomplish, they can’t be far from reality.
