London, June 3 (IANS) Fast bowler Josh Tongue has retained his place as England named an unchanged 16-member squad, which is playing the ongoing match against Ireland, for the first two Ashes Tests against Australia.
Tongue was a late addition to England’s squad to face Ireland in the one-off Test at Lord’s after fellow pacers Ollie Robinson and James Anderson picked up ankle and groin niggles respectively in the County Championship, and has been among the wickets in the ongoing match. The performance at Lord’s has led to him now being named in England’s squad for the first two Ashes matches.
Though Robinson and Anderson missed out on featuring in the Ireland Test due to the niggles, they are expected to be fit in time for the opening Ashes Test. It also means that wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes will not feature in the opening two matches of the highly-anticipated series.
Foakes has lost his place in the England Test side to Jonny Bairstow, who is making his international comeback through the ongoing match against Ireland after suffering a freak leg injury in August last year. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley are set to continue as the opening pair, with Dan Lawrence being the backup batter in the squad.
The England squad party will report to Birmingham on June 12 and commence practice at Edgbaston the next day. The 2023 Ashes series will get underway at Edgbaston from June 16-20, with the second Test taking place at Lord’s from June 28-July 2.
Australia haven’t won an Ashes series in England since 2001 while the Ben Stokes-led side are looking to regain the urn for the first time since 2015.
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood
Men’s Ashes series schedule
1st Test: England v Australia, June 16-20, Edgbaston, Birmingham
2nd Test: England v Australia, June 28-July 2, Lord’s, London
3rd Test: England v Australia, July 6-10, Headingley, Leeds
4th Test: England v Australia, July 19-23, Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester
5th Test: England v Australia, July 27-31, The Oval, London
–IANS
nr/bsk
