On Saturday, July 4, England and Wales Cricket Board announced the playing squad for the England vs West Indies Test series that will start next week. The 13-man squad will be led by Ben Stokes, in absence of Joe Roots. The England vs West Indies squad has numerous changes that need focus.
The selected squad
Johnny Bairstow and Moeen Ali are both left out of the team and didn’t even make the reserves list. Moeen had taken a break from the Test cricket previously but had made himself available again. Though he was included in the 30-strong training squad, the 13-man squad included Dom Bess. Dom impressed the selectors during England’s tour of South Africa and will be the specialist slow bowler for the team at Southampton when the Test series starts.
Johnny Bairstow, the wicketkeeper-batsman was also not selected in the series and will focus more on the ODI for time being. He is replaced by Jos Buttler, the wicketkeeper and World Cup winner, who will also be the vice-captain to Ben Stokes. Ben Stokes will lead the squad for the first Test as Joe Root will miss the match to attend the birth of his second child. The backup wicket-keeper position was taken up by Ben Foakes.
The first four openers spot would be taken up by Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Joe Denly. However, Denly has a record of 30 in his 14 Tests matches career and thus would need to perform significantly well if he wants to keep his position when Root returns for the second and third matches.
Bowlers selected
The England vs West Indies squad of bowlers includes the 5 seamers along with Mark Wood, Barbados-born, World Cup Team player Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and the new-ball bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Board.
However, only three of them can play in the match as Ben Stokes is himself a seam-bowling all-rounder.
Dan Lawrence has made the standby list along with Sam Curran, who on Wednesday underwent COVID-19 test as he showed symptoms related to the disease and missed the last two days of intra-squad warm-up matches.
The England squad declared for the first Test
Ben Stokes (Durham, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jofra Archer (Sussex), Dominic Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Jos Buttler (Lancashire, wicket), Zak Crawley (Kent), Joe Denly (Kent), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)
Test reserves
James Bracey (Gloucestershire), Sam Curran (Surrey), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Ollie Robinson (Sussex), Olly Stone (Warwickshire)
The England vs West Indies squad will be seen Test series during the commence of international cricket. The first match will be held at Ageas Bowl, Southampton on July 8th.
