England name unchanged squad for second Ashes Test at Lord’s
England have named an unchanged 13-man squad for the second Ashes Test at Lord’s next week having thrashed Australia by 169 runs in Cardiff on Saturday to take a 1-0 series lead, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Sunday.
England won the opening Test inside four days having bowled Australia out for 242, who were chasing a daunting 412 to win, and banished memories of the humiliating 5-0 Ashes whitewash in the previous series down under.
Joe Root scored a masterful hundred in the first innings and a fifty in the second while there were also pressure-easing half centuries from Gary Ballance and Ian Bell.
Moeen Ali also scored a swashbuckling 77 and took five wickets, as did Stuart Broad, in the match as part of an England bowling attack that subdued Australia’s dangerous batting lineup.
The opening Test also marked the first match in charge for new England head coach Trevor Bayliss, 52, who was appointed Peter Moores’ successor in May.
The Australian said he had seen signs during the drawn Test series against New Zealand in May and June that England were poised to do something special but warned against complacency ahead of the Lord’s Test.
“The players have been heading in the right direction over the last series with New Zealand and I was lucky to come in at this time,” Bayliss told reporters.
“They are interested in playing good, attacking cricket. Any win is a fantastic feeling.
“The boys are aware that when you beat Australia, the next match is going to be even tougher because they will come back hard.
“There is a long way to go in this series. To win we will have to play some very good cricket.”
Should the same 11 take the field at the home of cricket on Thursday, Middlesex pace bowler Steven Finn, without a Test cap since July 2013, and Yorkshire’s uncapped spinner Adil Rashid will miss out.
The third Test begins at Edgbaston on July 29, the fourth at Trent Bridge on Aug. 6 and the final match of the series at the Oval on Aug. 20.
Squad: Alastair Cook (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Mark Wood (Reporting By Tom Hayward; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
