England squad to face Pakistan in the first Test: Cook (C), Hales, Root, Vince, Ballance, Bairstow, (WK), Mooen, Woakes, Broad, Finn, Ball, Roland-Jones.
Advertisement
Jake Ball, the Nottinghamshire seamer, who was in each squad for the Sri Lanka series retains his place despite an elbow niggle and will likely compete for a spot in the final XI with Roland-Jones.
England have named Gary Ballance and Toby Roland-Jones in their 12-man squad for the first test against Pakistan which starts at Lord’s on the 14th of July.
The 33-year-old, who is the number one bowler in the world, suffered a reported stress fracture during the third Test against Sri Lanka last month.
Anderson damaged his shoulder in the 3rd Test as England comprehensively won the first Test series of the summer with the Lancashire fast bowler taking 21 wickets in the process.
That leaves a place in the middle-order, with Stokes and Buttler both thought to have been in contention after coach Trevor Bayliss said either could play as a specialist batsman – all-rounder Stokes is not yet fit to bowl after knee surgery, while wicketkeeper Buttler has impressed with the bat in limited-overs cricket.
However, he scored 132 for the White Rose county against Middlesex last week and has been rewarded for his efforts.
With a total of 278 wickets from 75 first-class matches, Roland-Jones had an impressive season with Middlesex where he picked 30 wickets from nine matches at an average of 29.07.
Ballance, who averages 47 from 15 Tests, is greatly admired by chief selector Whitaker, who said: “He has been in recent form with the bat for Yorkshire in the Championship”.
“Building on the success of the Test series win against Sri Lanka last month, we have maintained our objective of retaining a balanced squad”, he added. “He’s just back from a long time out of the game”. Cook believed that one reason why Buttler was not recalled is the fact that he has not played red ball cricket for quite some time now.
Advertisement
That year’s Lord’s Test saw Pakistan seamers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, together with captain Salman Butt, given five-year bans and jail terms for deliberately bowling no-balls as part of a newspaper sting operation.
