As widely trailed by the side’s new captain, Ben Stokes, the 13-man squad for the first two Tests of a three-match series against McCullum’s compatriots from New Zealand, at Lord’s and Trent Bridge next month, features both James Anderson and Stuart Broad, first and third respectively on England’s all-time most-capped list.
Yorkshire’s Harry Brook, who with 758 runs across eight County Championship innings at an average of 151.6 has been the outstanding domestic batter of the English summer so far, gets his first Test call-up – he made his T20 debut in January – alongside Durham’s Matthew Potts, whose current haul of 35 wickets is 11 more than any other bowler in either division. Both the players were included in the test side. Here is the full squad:
Ben Stokes (Durham, captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Jack Leach (Somerset), Alex Lees (Durham), Craig Overton (Somerset), Matthew Potts (Durham), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire).