The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced the England playing XI for the third Ashes 2023 Test against Australia which will be played at Headingley, Leeds, and sees James Anderson being dropped in favor of Mark Wood’s pace.
England is 2-0 down in the series and needs to win the third Test at a venue, where Ben Stokes had played an amazing knock to take his team home by one wicket when they met Australia in the 2019 Ashes.
Amongst the changes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, and Moeen Ali return to the starting XI in place of James Anderson, Josh Tongue, and the injured Ollie Pope. The XI was confirmed shortly before England’s captain, Ben Stokes, addressed the media at Headingley, where his team must win to begin to claw back their 2-0 deficit after defeats at Edgbaston and Lord’s.
Anderson being dropped was highly predicted as the 40-year-old has so far claimed three wickets at 75.33 in an off-color start to his tenth Ashes campaign. He makes way for the return of Woakes, who has not played a home Test since September 2021, but whose record of 94 wickets at 22.63 in England makes him the obvious like-for-like replacement.
Ollie Pope will miss the rest of the Ashes 2023 after dislocating his shoulder at Lord’s and seeing Chris Woakes replacing him in the playing XI.
On the other hand Moeen Ali’s inclusion is the reason why England has opted not to replace Pope with an additional batter in Dan Lawrence. Harry Brook looks set to fill Pope’s role at No.3, in a show of faith in spite of his quiet series to date. He’s made 132 runs at 33 in four innings.
Mark Wood Comes In For Josh Tongue
Despite making a spirited bowling display on Lord’s pitch, Josh Tongue made way for more pacy Mark Wood. He returns for his first Test since the December tour of Pakistan and his first competitive game in all of cricket since his fiery performances for Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL in April. He missed the Lord’s Test to make sure he was ready for action.
? We can confirm our XI for the third Ashes Test in Leeds…
Three changes from Lord’s…
↩️ Ollie Pope
↩️ Josh Tongue
↩️ Jimmy Anderson↪️ Moeen Ali
↪️ Mark Wood
↪️ Chris Woakes#EnglandCricket | #Ashes— England Cricket (@englandcricket) July 5, 2023
England squad for third Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes (capt), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood