England keep the same 14 for opening Pakistan Test

ENGLAND captain Joe Root and coach Chris Silverwood will again have a selection dilemma about the make-up of their pace attack after an unchanged 14-man squad was named for next week’s first Test against Pakistan.

Having rotated their frontline fast bowlers during the 2-1 £raisethebat series win over the West Indies in recent weeks, the competition for places appears even more intense than at the start of the month.

Stuart Broad responded to being left out of the opener with 16 wickets at 10.93 in the last two Tests while Chris Woakes ended the series with a five-for and is now averaging 22.53 in home conditions.

James Anderson is England’s leading wicket-taker, the raw pace of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood has swung matches in England’s favour while Sam Curran has won every home Test he has played in.

Wood and Curran were the unfortunate seamers to be left out of the decider but they have been retained in the squad to face Pakistan at Emirates Old Trafford next Wednesday.

Top-order batsmen James Bracey and Dan Lawrence, wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and slow left-armer Jack Leach will stay on with the group for now as reserves.

The red-ball group will leave their ‘bio-secure’ bubble before reconvening in Manchester on Sunday.

ENGLAND TEST SQUAD: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood. RESERVES: James Bracey, Ben Foakes, Jack Leach, Dan Lawrence.