London: England head coach Brendon McCullum expects James Anderson and Ollie Robinson to be fit for the Ashes clash with Australia despite ruling the pace bowlers out of this week’s Test against Ireland.
Anderson strained his groin while on Lancashire duty and Robinson suffered an ankle issue playing for Sussex earlier this month.
The pair will remain sidelined when England host Ireland at Lord’s in a four-day match prior to the first Ashes Test.
The five-match series against Australia begins on June 16, but McCullum is confident Anderson and Robinson can return in time for the opener in Birmingham.
“For the first Ashes Test, I think they should be fit,” McCullum said yesterday. “They won’t be fit for this one against Ireland. We’ll just have to monitor it over this next sort of while, but we’ve got some great options right throughout the squad. “When I first took over this job, people said there wasn’t much depth in English cricket and I disagree with that completely. “I think there is an immense amount of depth and we’ve got plenty of good options throughout the squad.” England already have fitness concerns over a number of other bowlers, with Jofra Archer and Olly Stone struggling with elbow and hamstring problems respectively.
With Anderson and Robinson ruled out, Stuart Broad will lead the bowling attack against Ireland but Mark Wood will have to be assessed before a final decision is made on his fitness. “He is bowling over there at the moment and seems to be getting through his work so hopefully he will be fine too,” McCullum said of Wood. “We’ve still got a couple of days and will make the decision when we need to, but he seems to be progressing well.”
Hazlewood makes the cut as Australia
confirm WTC final squadJosh Hazlewood made the cut when Australia submitted their final 15-man squad for next week’s World Test Championship final despite recent injury concerns, the International Cricket Council (ICC) have announced.
The paceman cut short his Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign earlier this month after reporting “minor side soreness” but had been declared fit by Cricket Australia.
Squads:Australia - Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
India - Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohamed Shami, Mohamed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan