England on Tuesday (July 16) announced their starting XI for the second Test against the West Indies, scheduled to begin on July 18 at Trent Bridge.
As expected, the hosts have made one change to their starting XI due to the retirement of James Anderson. The legendary pace bowler called time on his illustrious Test career after the first Test at Lord’s last week.
Three bowlers were in contention to replace Anderson in the starting XI: Matthew Potts, Dillon Pennington and Mark Wood. Potts and Pennington were also in the squad for the first Test match, while Wood joined the team for the second match.
And for the next match, Wood has the nod ahead of Potts and Pennington in England’s starting XI. The right-handed bowler last played for England during the T20 World Cup last month. He played 5 matches in the competition and picked up 3 wickets as England bowed out at the semi-final stage. Wood’s last Test appearance was in March this year during the Dharamsala Test against India.
England takes the lead:
As for the series, England took the lead with a big win in the first Test. The Ben Stokes-led side completely outplayed the West Indies at Lord’s and won the match by an innings and 114 runs. The match was over in just over two days as the West Indies simply failed to pose any challenge to their favourite hosts.
Asked to bat first, West Indies were bowled out for just 121 runs. They did well not to lose any wicket in the first ten overs but things went downhill once debutant Gus Atkinson broke through. Atkinson picked up a sensational haul of 7 wickets to help his team take command.
In reply, England finished their innings on 351 runs and took a huge lead of 250 runs thanks to half-centuries from Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook and debutant Jamie Smith. In the second innings, the West Indies batsman again underperformed as England bowled them out for just 136 runs.
England’s starting XI for their second Test against the West Indies:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (centre), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood and Shoaib Bashir