England announce squad for the first Test against Windies

England named their 13-man squad for the first Test match against Windies at Edgbaston starting from August 17, which will be a day/night affair. This will also be the first ever pink ball Test match in England and also the first that involves England. The selectors decided to drop the likes of Keaton Jennings, Liam Dawson and Steven Finn who were a part of the recently concluded home Test series against South Africa.

England squad will be boosted by the return of their all-rounder Chris Woakes, who missed all the cricketing action for the last two months after suffering a side strain in the Champions Trophy opener. The all-rounder appeared in the previous round of County Championship for Warwickshire and proved his fitness by scoring a fifty and picking up 5 wickets in the game. He will be replacing Finn in the England squad.

Chris Woakes is back!

“Chris Woakes has proved his fitness and returns to the squad having missed most of the summer through injury. He was impressive in his return game at Lord’s this week and if selected in the final line-up, he will be relishing the prospect of playing on his home ground,” said James Whitaker, the National selector of England.

Jennings, who aggregated only 127 runs in 8 innings in the South Africa series makes way for his Durham mate, Mark Stoneman. The 30-year-old has got the reward for his consistent performances as he scored over 1000 runs in the each of the last four first-class seasons. His best was in 2016 where he scored 1317 runs at 47.03 and has already amassed 1000 runs this season at an impressive average of 58.82.

Jennings to play county

“Keaton Jennings will return to Durham and will look to recapture the form that earned him selection in the first place. I am sure he will find his confidence and look to score runs in the remaining matches of this season,” said Whitaker about their decision of dropping Jennings.

The selectors also included the young leg-spinner Mason Crane who will replace the left-arm spinner, Liam Dawson. The 20-year-old recently made his debut in T20I series against South Africa and impressed everyone with his bowling though he picked up only one wicket in the two games he played.

England squad: Joe Root (Captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Mason Crane, Dawid Malan, Toby Roland-Jones, Ben Stokes, Mark Stoneman, Tom Westley, Chris Woakes.