England without key figures after naming Windies squad

England have announced a 16-man squad for the upcoming three-test tour to the Caribbean, due to be getting underway on March 8^th in Antigua.

The squad is vastly different from that which toured Australia in the recent Ashes series, which saw England routed 4-0. 7 of the 18-man squad are missing from this new touring party.

While interim managing director Andrew Strauss has denied that ‘it is the end’ for veteran seamers Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, the tour is likely to mark the pausing, or ending, of the careers of several other squad members, such as Dom Bess, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler and Haseeb Hameed, while Dawid Malan has likely been left at home after his wife gave birth to their first child only a few weeks ago.

Malan was England’s second-highest run-scorer Down Under and will most likely slot back into the side when New Zealand are in town in June.

In the place of the other six squad members left behind, England have instead called up Yorkshire seamer Matthew Fisher, Surrey keeper Ben Foakes, Durham opener Alex Lees, and Lancashire pair Saqib Mahmood and Matthew Parkinson.

It is the latter pair that are most likely to excite England fans, with crafty leg-spinner Parkinson getting the call most fans have been eagerly anticipating after seeing the 25-year-old tear through many a County line-up with both red and white ball in recent years. Mahmood has been making a name for himself as one of the fastest bowlers in the domestic game, as well as tearing through Pakistan on multiple occasions last summer, picking up 9 wickets across 3 ODI’s.

If those two call-ups were long overdue in many fans’ eyes, then the call-up of Fisher would have come to many as a shock. With a moderate first-class record that has seen him take 63 wickets in 21 appearances, Fisher has hardly set the world alight and you would be forgiven for thinking his place was a mistake, meant to be handed to one of his contemporaries such as county teammate Ben Coad, one of Essex pair Jamie Porter and Sam Cook and Warwickshire’s Liam Norwell amongst others.

Foakes is likely to take the gloves in Buttler’s absence, signalling the Surrey man’s first appearance in almost exactly a year, following the 2021 tour of India. Unlike the other call-up’s, Foakes has experience of test match cricket, making a century on debut in Sri Lanka in 2018. He currently averages 31.53 from his 8 matches so far, while also boasting a record of 19 dismissals, with 14 catches and 5 stumpings to his name.

The final new call-up is former Yorkshire and current Durham opener Alex Lees who is likely to open the batting alongside Zak Crawley in the Caribbean after scoring 625 runs for Durham last season at an impressive average of 39.06. The 28-year-old will be hoping to improve on his most recent red ball performance where he made scores of 2 and 1 as England Lions were humiliated by Australia A, however with a high score of 275 not out and a career average bordering on 35, there is clearly a talented batsman there.

While there are still doubts over how exactly England will line up for the first Test under interim Head Coach Paul Collingwood, captain Joe Root has been confirmed to bat at three in Malan’s absence.

Predicted line-up: Crawley, Lees, Root, Pope, Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes, Robinson, Mahmood, Wood, Parkinson

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