England will go into their first Test of the four match series against Pakistan on Thursday without Jimmy Anderson and his opening bowling partner Stuart Broad thinks the Burnley Express should be there and it's difficult to argue with him.
The test series against Pakistan, the only test side who England don't hold victory over in their most recent series, should be a lot trickier than the earlier series this year against Sri Lanka and the start will be made more difficult by the absence at Lord's of Anderson and all-rounder Ben Stokes.
Anderson picked up his injury after the final test of the series against Sri Lanka but was expected to be okay in time for the opener at cricket HQ on Thursday. However when the 13 man squad was named last week Jake Ball and Toby Roland-Jones were given the extra bowling spots.
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Broad didn't sound too happy with the decision and would have included his mate saying, "I would have been tempted to have Jimmy in the 13, then you have him around working with the bowlers, pushing his fitness to maybe play on Thursday.
"I saw him [last week] and he was doing OK. He was pretty certain he would be included. I don't want to speak for him but he will be disappointed he is not in the squad."
Losing Anderson means that Alastair Cook is short of 454 test wickets worth of experience as well as being without Stokes who missed half of the Pakistan test and was considered in a batsman only position for this match.
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Anderson, Stokes and Mark Wood, who is also out with an injury, are expected to spend some time with the squad this week to get some overs under their belts in the nets and either Ball or Roland-Jones will be making their debuts.
Broad made a further point about the side missing England's lead wicket taker of all time bearing in mind a Lord's pitch that has been batsman friendly this season, even if he did slightly over exaggerated, ""We have to do what no other team has done this year, take 20 wickets at Lord's. It posed a challenge when we had Jimmy four weeks ago [against Sri Lanka], so it will be a bigger challenge now."
(Via: The Times)
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