ALI MAKES GOOD PROGRESS AS AUSTRALIA’S COULTER-NILE OUT
ngland’s leading Test wicket-taker, James Anderson, has been named as Ben Stokes’ replacement as vicecaptain for the upcoming Ashes series.
Anderson, who has 506 wickets in 129 Tests, expressed an interest in the role earlier this week, and has seen off competition from Alastair Cook, the former captain, and Stuart Broad as Joe Root’s second-in-command. This is Anderson’s fourth Test tour of Australia, so he brings vast experience to the job.
Meanwhile, the seam bowler Jake Ball will undergo a scan on his right ankle, which buckled in his delivery stride on the second day of England’s tour match against a Cricket Australia XI at Adelaide Oval. The ankle is sprained and Ball, who left the ground on crutches on Thursday evening.
With the first Test 13 days away and just 14 fully fit players (Tom Curran has arrived in Adelaide to replace Steven Finn, another injured bowler), England can ill-afford for Ball’s problem to be serious. They are already missing Finn, Stokes, Mark Wood (heel) and Toby Roland-Jones (back), and their fast-bowling stocks are being stretched.
Moeen Ali is making good progress as he returns from a side injury. He is batting comfortably in the nets and is on course to play the final tour match before the first Test, a four-day match in Townsville from Wednesday.
There are injury worries for Australia, too, as fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile has been ruled out of the series due to the recurrence of a nagging back injury.
“Nathan Coulter-Nile has been sidelined with an ‘aggravation’ of a previous stress fracture that curtails his Ashes dreams but could see him return to cricket at the back end of the summer,” Cricket Australia announced on Friday.
Coulter-Nile played his first Sheffield Shield match in more than two years earlier this year before being rested for the second round of matches.
The right-armer captained Western Australia XI against the English in a two-day tour match on November 4-5, but complained of back pain afterwards.
“Nathan experienced some pain in his back following the two-day tour match against England last week. Subsequent scans have revealed an early stage aggravation of his old stress fracture,” Cricket Australia Sports Science and Sports Medicine Manager Alex Kountouris said.
Fit and ready
“Whilst this is a setback, the good news is that it has been picked up early so we are only considering a short break from bowling while we monitor him.
“We expect he will have further scans over the next month which will determine when he can return to bowling,” he added.
Coulter-Nile has yet to play a Test match, but has made 21 one-day and 19 T20 international appearance for Australia.
There was better news as Hazlewood Paceman Chris Woakes claimed four wickets as England roared back to the verge of victory against the Cricket Australia XI after the third day of the four day-night tour match at Adelaide Oval yesterday.
The tourists scrambled to 207 in their second innings on the back of Jonny Bairstow’s unbeaten 61 off 66 balls leaving the CA XI 268 runs to win.
But Warwickshire’s Woakes led a spirited England fightback, capturing four for 17 off 10 overs to leave the CA XI innings in tatters. Uncapped Craig Overton chipped in, taking two wickets for 10 runs. The tourists tried to wrap up victory opting for an extra half-hour of play on the third night under lights but were thwarted by Matt Short (28 not out) and Gurinder Sandhu (17 not out) through to stumps at 70 for seven. Up until Woakes’s superb bowling spell it looked an embarrassing day for Joe Root’s tourists, stumbling to 124 for seven at one stage. said he is fit and ready for the Ashes after taking six wickets and coming through a Sheffield Shield match unscathed. The 26-year-old was forced to return from Bangladesh following the first Test after picking up a side strain that also ruled him out of a subsequent limited-overs tour of India.
Hazlewood showed his injury problems are behind him with a satisfying performance for New South Wales against Western Australia earlier this week and he has been taken out of the team for next week’s match against Queensland.
He will instead train as part of Australia’s test attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to prepare for the opening Ashes test from November 23.
“Things went pretty well the whole game,” Hazlewood told reporters in Sydney on Friday. “From ball one I was pretty surprised with how well the ball was coming out, how good the run-up felt, how good everything (was) in general.
“I’m pretty happy with where it’s at now so I don’t think there’s a need to play another game. I’m ready to go now and we obviously talk with the coaches and selectors and physios and whatnot, everyone is on the same page and ready to go.”