Stuart Broad and James Anderson, England's leading wicket-takers, have been left out of the 16-member squad for the upcoming Test series versus West Indies. Between them, the pair has so far claimed 1,177 wickets, but has played together in only six out of 17 Test matches since 2021.
A selection panel of Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, and James Taylor decided to bring in new faces for the tour to the Caribbean. The uncapped Saqib Mahmood and Matthew Fisher have been included instead.
However, Strauss, the interim managing director of ECB men’s cricket, has emphasised that this is not the end of the road for Broad or Anderson: 'In respect of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, I want to emphasise this does not mean the end for them as England players. We feel that it is important to look at some exciting new bowling potential and give some added responsibility to other players who have featured previously.'
Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Jos Buttler, Sam Billings, and Dawid Malan were also dropped from the side. Burns and Hameed averaged 10 and 12 respectively in the Ashes 2021/22. Malan, too, faded away after one good innings. Surprisingly, Zak Crawley has managed to retain his place.
England Test Squad for West Indies: Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Zak Crawley, Matthew Fisher, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.