England reveal their playing XI for the Zimbabwe Test
England have handed out a debut in their XI for the four-day Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.
Essex seamer Sam Cook will make his Test debut at Trent Bridge as England kickstart their home summer on Thursday, May 22, with a one-off Test against Zimbabwe, who last played against them in 2003.
England’s top order remains pretty much the same as the one that played against New Zealand in their previous Test series late last year, with Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root and Harry Brook forming their batting core.
Ben Stokes, whose presence feels like a catalyst to lift the side, according to the head coach Brendon McCullum, is back after nursing a hamstring injury and will be leading the side. Jamie Smith will be behind the stumps as keeper and young spinner Shoaib Bashir makes it into the XI as well.
Along with Gus Atkinson, the pace attack will be led by Josh Tongue, who made a memorable Test debut with a five-wicket haul against Ireland at Lord’s. Cook replaces Matthew Potts as the third seamer in the side.
This is the first time Stokes’ side will be without the services of both Stuart Broad and James Anderson at home, following the latter’s retirement last year.
England playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Sam Cook, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
McCullum believes they will start as the favourites against the Chevrons but would need to make good decisions under pressure.
The former Kiwi captain, along with Stokes, has been a major reason for the turnaround in Test fortunes for England.
After their previous successful series against the Kiwis, England will be hoping to continue to ride on McCullum’s approach for favourable results, ahead of a long Test season against India and Australia.
Those two marquee series will be part of England's new ICC World Test Championship campaign and McCullum is keen to help the side start the new cycle in style and improve on recent results that helped them rise to second on the ICC Test Team Rankings.
"To get to where we are is good, and everyone’s happy about that, but at the same time there’s a lot of meat on the bone for us,” he said.
“When we took on a project like this, it was not about necessarily settling on good.”