Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Moeen Ali return for must-win Headingley Test
England have made three adjustments for Thursday’s third Ashes Test at Headingley, with Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, and Moeen Ali returning to the beginning XI instead of James Anderson, Josh Tongue and the injured Ollie Pope.
The XI was confirmed shortly earlier than England’s captain, Ben Stokes, addressed the media at Headingley, the place his crew should win to start to claw again their 2-0 deficit after defeats at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
Of the three adjustments, Anderson’s was essentially the most anticipated. He has to this point claimed three wickets at 75.33 in an off-colour begin to his tenth Ashes marketing campaign, and after declaring the Edgbaston pitch to be “kryptonite”, England’s short-ball method at Lord’s additionally went away from his most popular swing-bowling strategies.
He makes manner for the return of Woakes, who has not performed a house Test since September 2021, however whose file of 94 wickets at 22.63 in England makes him the apparent like-for-like alternative.
Plus, within the absence of Pope – whose dislocated proper shoulder has ruled him out of the summer – Woakes’ prowess with the bat (he averages 35.25 at dwelling, with 100 and 5 fifties) is a bonus after England fielded an unusually prolonged tail at Lord’s.
Moeen’s return offers much more ballast within the lower-middle order, and is additional motive why England have opted to not exchange Pope with a further batter, with Essex’s Dan Lawrence the one spare possibility inside their squad. Harry Brook has been handed Pope’s position at No.3, in a present of religion despite his quiet collection thus far. He’s made 132 runs at 33 in 4 innings, however attracted criticism for a delicate dismissal at Lord’s after reaching his half-century.
Moeen missed the Lord’s Test after sustaining a lower to the knuckle of his spinning finger, however he has been deemed match to renew his comeback to the format. His look within the first Test at Edgbaston had been his first since retirement on the finish of the India collection in 2021, and he resumes needing two extra wickets to succeed in 200 in Tests.
Wood’s additional tempo, in the meantime, provides England a real level of distinction after being noticeably out-matched on the pace gun within the first two Tests. After lacking the Lord’s Test to make sure his readiness for motion, he returns for his first Test for the reason that tour of Pakistan in December, and his first aggressive outing in all cricket since his fiery shows for Lucknow Super Giants within the IPL in April.
He steps in for Josh Tongue, who produced a spirited show in his first style of Ashes cricket at Lord’s, the place he completed with 5 wickets within the match, together with Steve Smith and David Warner in each innings.
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Harry Brook, 4 Joe Root, 5 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Ollie Robinson, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Mark Wood