England skipper Ben Stokes has revealed that Stuart Broad’s impressive record against David Warner played a crucial role in his selection for the first Ashes Test against Australia. The highly-anticipated five-match series is scheduled to get underway on Friday (June 15) at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
England have already announced their playing eleven for the series-opener. Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson are the three pacers in the team with Moeen Ali as the spin-bowling allrounder. The decision to leave out the likes of Matthew Potts, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes have raised a number of eyebrows before Stokes explained the reason behind it.
Ben Stokes on Stuart Broad’s selection:
Speaking on the selection of Broad in the playing eleven for first Test, Ben Stokes pointed out that the pacer’s record against Warner played a role in it. Broad had completely dominated Warner in the last Ashes series in England, dismissing him seven times in 10 innings. Stokes also praised Broad’s remarkable track record, likening it to India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin’s performances against him.
“It’s just one of those things – like Ashwin against me. ‘Broady’ has been an unbelievable performer over many years,” Stokes said.
“What the Ashes brings, it’s so hard to look past someone like that. It’s so hard to look past Jimmy and ‘Robbo’ as well, he’s been incredible over the last year in all conditions. I’m very happy with the team we’ve ended up picking,” he added.
Meanwhile, Australia skipper Pat Cummins is confident that Warner will make amends for his poor show in the 2019 Ashes. The veteran opener showed signs of form during the World Test Championship (WTC) final, where he scored 43 runs in the first innings.
“I’m sure he’s thought about it a lot over the last couple of years hoping to get another crack at it. Davey will have all his plans in place. I’m sure you’ll see a bit more of an aggressive Davey than what you saw in 2019 and he’s itching to get out there and have another chance at it,” said Cummins.