Former England skipper Michael Atherton feels lack of cricketing action ahead of the first Ashes Test prompted the visitors to leave out veteran pacers James Anderson and Stuart Broad from the playing XI.
The Ashes 2021-22 series got underway at Gabba, Brisbane on Wednesday (December 8) and England went with the pace duo of Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood alongside seam-bowling all-rounders Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes. The bowling attack also features a spinner in Jack Leach.
See Also: Cricket fraternity lauds Pat Cummins as he claims five-wicket haul on captaincy debut
Anderson was not part of the 12-member squad announced on the eve of the match as the England team management felt the workload of five Ashes Tests would be a bit too much for the 39-year-old.
“I think they’re just very wary of the fitness situation with Broad and Anderson," Atherton told SEN Test Cricket. “I don’t think those decisions are on the quality of their bowling. If both had played cricket, had two or three warm-up matches, one of them at least would’ve played — maybe even both.
“They’re 39 and 35 years of age. Last summer, Broad tore his calf really badly and he tore it on the back of no cricket. England had this ridiculous situation in the summer where The Hundred, the new competition, and The Blast took over much of the middle of the summer and it meant that there was very little first-class cricket," said Atherton.
Earlier this year, Broad has pulled his calf muscle in the first Test against New Zealand and missed the entire home series against India.
Citing the reference, Atherton said it had happened because of lack of competitive cricket for five full weeks in the run-up to the two-Test series against the Kiwis.
“Broad played in the first Test match and he played in that Test match on the back of basically five weeks without cricket. And what the physios and the medics said that he hadn’t got his loads up and then he pulled his calf before the second Test match.
“I think they’re very wary of Broad and Anderson coming into this game on the back of no cricket - Broad hasn’t played since August, Anderson hasn’t played since September, they’ve had no preparation matches, the rain has obliterated what practice they would’ve had, so I just think they were precautionary, really. And that was the reason for it."
(With IANS inputs)
