England name unchanged squad for Lord’s Test
CARDIFF: England on Sunday named an unchanged 13-man squad for the second Ashes Test against Australia which starts at Lord’s on Thursday.
Stuart Broad led England to a 169-run victory in the first Test as Australia collapsed either side of lunch on the fourth day at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens on Saturday.
England’s successful XI will be joined again by Steven Finn and Adil Rashid as extra bowling options for the second match of five.
Australia, well-placed at 97-1 in Cardiff on Saturday, slumped to 106-5 as four wickets fell for just nine runs in 36 balls.
Chasing a record-breaking 412 for victory, the Ashes-holders were dismissed for 242 after tea.
Fast-medium bowler Broad took 3-39 in 14 overs as England enjoyed an emphatic win in their first match under new Australian coach Trevor Bayliss.
Joe Root, named man-of-the-match for his first innings 134 after coming in with England struggling at 43 for three, had the last word in the game by catching Josh Hazlewood in the deep off spinner Moeen Ali.
England captain Alastair Cook has often been criticised for excessive caution in the field but didn’t miss a trick in Cardiff and an impressed Bayliss said: “I thought his captaincy was top-notch.”
Bayliss, however, added he was expecting Australia to bounce back strongly at Lord’s.
“The boys are very much aware that, when you beat Australia, then the next match is going to be even tougher,” the former Sri Lanka and New South Wales coach said. “They’ll come back hard — we know that — and there’s still a long way to go in this series. To win it, we’ll have to play some very good cricket.”
Squad: Alastair Cook (captain), Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Adil Rashid.
Published in Dawn ,July 13th, 2015
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