England Name Squad for First Two India Tests

Stokes and Archer Return

England have named their squad for the first two tests against India with Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer returning after being rested against Sri Lanka.

Squad:

Root

Archer

Moeen Ali

Anderson

Bess

Broad

Burns

Buttler

Crawley

Foakes

Lawrence

Leach

Sibley

Stokes

Stone

Woakes

Reserves:

Bracey

Crane

Mahmood

Parkinson

Robinson

Virdi

Bairstow, Wood and Sam Curran are rested as England look to continue to rotate players that are involved in all formats.

The decision to rest Curran and Wood is sensible and explains why they were surprisingly picked to play back to back tests in Sri Lanka.

I do think however that Bairstow won’t be happy with the being rested and the decision to rest him suggests to me that the England selectors still don’t see a spot for him in their first choice eleven when everyone is available despite his performance in the both innings in the first test against Sri Lanka.

He will come back in to the squad after the first two tests but his selection in the team may depend on him getting a big score in this test and on others failing in India.

I think the pressure is still on the top three to score big runs and soak up pressure of deliveries against the new ball. Number three and perhaps the wicket keeper slot are probably the only positions now available for Bairstow to fight for given the middle order strength England now possess with Root, Stokes and Lawrence or Pope.