Sydney: England’s leading Test wicket-taker, James Anderson, has been named as Ben Stokes’ replacement as vice-captain for the upcoming Ashes series.
Anderson, who has 506 wickets in 129 Tests, expressed an interest in the role earlier this week, and has seen off competition from Alastair Cook, the former captain, and Stuart Broad as Joe Root’s second-in-command. This is Anderson’s fourth Test tour of Australia, so he brings vast experience to the job.
Meanwhile, the seam bowler Jake Ball will undergo a scan on his right ankle, which buckled in his delivery stride on the second day of England’s tour match against a Cricket Australia XI at Adelaide Oval. The ankle is sprained and Ball, who left the ground on crutches on Thursday evening.
With the first Test 13 days away and just 14 fully fit players (Tom Curran has arrived in Adelaide to replace Steven Finn, another injured bowler), England can ill-afford for Ball’s problem to be serious. They are already missing Finn, Stokes, Mark Wood (heel) and Toby Roland-Jones (back), and their fast-bowling stocks are being stretched.
Moeen Ali is making good progress as he returns from a side injury. He is batting comfortably in the nets and is on course to play the final tour match before the first Test, a four-day match in Townsville from Wednesday.
There are injury worries for Australia, too, as fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile will take a “short break” after suffering a fresh back problem, Cricket Australia said on Friday, probably ruling him out of the series.
Coulter-Nile, 30, has a history of spinal stress fractures and the latest setback appears to end his chances of being a back-up to Australia’s pace trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins against England.
“Nathan experienced some pain in his back following the two-day tour match against England last week,” CA’s sports medicine manager Alex Kountouris said.
“Subsequent scans have revealed an early stage aggravation of his old stress fracture.
“Whilst this is a setback, the good news is that it has been picked up early so we are only considering a short break from bowling while we monitor him.”
Kountouris said Coulter-Nile will have further scans over the next month to determine when he can return to bowling. The five-Test Ashes series starts on November 23.
Coulter-Nile has yet to play a Test match, but has made 21 one-day and 19 T20 international appearance for Australia.
There was better news as Hazlewood said he is fit and ready for the Ashes after taking six wickets and coming through a Sheffield Shield match unscathed.
The 26-year-old was forced to return from Bangladesh following the first Test after picking up a side strain that also ruled him out of a subsequent limited-overs tour of India.
Hazlewood showed his injury problems are behind him with a satisfying performance for New South Wales against Western Australia earlier this week and he has been taken out of the team for next week’s match against Queensland.
He will instead train as part of Australia’s test attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to prepare for the opening Ashes test from November 23.
“Things went pretty well the whole game,” Hazlewood told reporters in Sydney on Friday. “From ball one I was pretty surprised with how well the ball was coming out, how good the run-up felt, how good everything (was) in general.
“I’m pretty happy with where it’s at now so I don’t think there’s a need to play another game.
“I’m ready to go now and we obviously talk with the coaches and selectors and physios and whatnot, everyone is on the same page and ready to go.”
