England recall Broad, Anderson for Lord’s Test against NZ

LONDON: England have recalled veteran pace bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad to their side for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on Thursday while giving a debut to Durham quick Matthew Potts.

Anderson and Broad, England’s two most successful bowlers of all time, with a combined 1,177 wickets between them, were both controversially left out of the squad for a 1-0 series loss in the West Indies earlier. Potts gets his chance after an injury crisis deprived England of several fast bowlers including Mark Wood, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson and Jofra Archer.

This will be England’s first Test under their new leadership duo of captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain. England, who named their team on Wednesday, a day ahead of schedule, go into this three-match series bottom of the World Test Championship table, with New Zealand the reigning champions.

England team to play New Zealand in the first Test at Lord’s:Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wkt), Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson