Ashes 2021-22 | Broad and Anderson fit and ready for second Test, confirms Silverwood
Stuart Broad and James Anderson are primed to feature in England’s XI for the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, with head-coach Chris Silverwood declaring the pair “fit and ready”. England went down by nine-wickets in the series opener in Brisbane, and their team selection prompted several debates.
James Anderson And Stuart Broad, who are Test cricket’s leading wicket-takers among current bowlers with 632 and 524 scalps respectively, were rather surprisingly excluded from England’s XI for the first Ashes Test in Brisbane, which the visitors went on to lose by nine wickets. Interestingly, Anderson was excluded from the initial 12-member squad named ahead of the series opener.
Chris Silverwood, the England head coach, has declared that the pair is ready to go for the day/night Test to be played at the Adelaide Oval, beginning Thursday, December 16.
"Jimmy will be fit and ready to go for the second Test, as will Stuart," Silverwood said on Sunday (December 12). "They are available. Certainly, from an experience point of view, with the bowlers we've got heaps of experience so I'm happy with that. The guys have already been training with the pink ball behind the scenes. And what we have got is a very skilful set of bowlers. We have talent and we still have two of the best up our sleeve as well."
England had Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson as their three frontline quicks in Brisbane, to go with the left-arm spin of Jack Leach. Leach went for 1/102 from his 13 overs, and his selection prompted debates and criticism from experts and fans alike.
Broad, who was named in the initial 12-member squad, expressed his disappointment after being sidelined. Silverwood looked back at the decision.
"Stuart has been great, to be honest," Silverwood said. "Obviously he was disappointed not to be playing but he understood that this is a long series. Everybody will put their hand up to do the hard work out there and he is ready to do that now. We had good conversations with Stuart before any decisions were made and he was 100 per cent on board.
"I've not told anyone they are playing yet. We will have some sore bodies from this Test and we'll make decisions from there."
Silverwood laid emphasis on the need to improve on fielding and building on with big partnerships with his side trailing 0-1 in the series. The visitors were also docked five World Test Championship points and 100% of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate at The Gabba.
"We had a good chat in the dressing-room after," he said. "There are obvious areas we need to improve on, such as holding our catches and building big partnerships. Obviously they were hurting, but there is belief they can win this series. We have been in this position before. We have gone 1-0 down and then bounced back. We have the players here that can match the Australians. The confidence is there that we can compete with Australia, and that's exactly what we intend to do.
"What hurts the most is the Test championship points, because we are competing to get in the final," said Silverwood. "It was our first Test for a while, and we had not had that warm-up game, so the guys were not used to getting around all the time, and it was hot out there. It is something we will talk about. There is no hiding from it."