England announced their highly anticipated Ashes squad this week, naming the 16-players tasked with winning back the urn in Australia for the first time since 2011. Here are the takeaways from the squad announcement.
McCullum and Stokes tick off first task
The overwhelming takeaway is that this squad allows Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes to take a breath. They’ve carved out this side almost from when they took over, although with more intensity since the beginning of 2024, with the Ashes circled in red on their calendars. Most important on their wishlist for Australia was a battery of fast-bowlers, with the skill and hostility to rattle batters used to bunting 80mph English seamers every four years. Somehow, they’ve managed to nurse them through enough to have them all available to select from. English cricket fans have been waiting over six years to see Jofra Archer in Australia, and in the same squad as Mark Wood. It’s the type of bowling attack England haven’t been able to select for an away Ashes in decades.
Not everything has come together quite as neatly as their pace battery, however. One of their goals would have been to have a settled top six inked in for the first Test. Jacob Bethell’s emergence has torpedoed that goal, and Zak Crawley is still, well… there. It’s also not hard to see how the squad which leaves Australia could look very different to the one on the plane ride there. Stokes teeters on the brink of injury in almost every game he plays, Wood hasn’t played a Test since last summer, and with Ollie Pope the only back-up keeper, they’re a broken finger and a calf strain away from a full-blown injury crisis. That being said, there’s still two months to go until the first Test match in Perth, plenty of time for the answers to those concerns to evolve.
Jacks springs biggest surprise
By McCullum’s own admission, the only real selection question the panel which selected the Ashes squad was who their second spinner would be. Shoaib Bashir gets the ultimate backing as their first-choice, having recovered from the finger injury which kept him out of the second half of the summer. They had options in the ever-reliable Jack Leach, and Liam Dawson after his recall against India. But the consensus outside of the room was that it was more likely to be Rehan Ahmed, who’s spent the summer biffing Division Two attacks and breaking all-round records for Leicestershire. In the end, it was Will Jacks, who was likely not even an option on predictor tools for the squad a week ago.
Jacks got his first of two Test caps in Rawalpindi, where he took six-for on debut as Pakistan looked to clobber him out of the park. However, he wasn’t selected when England took four spinners to India last year and has been off the Test radar. His selection this time around is down to a specific scenario. England can’t say with confidence that Stokes will make it through all five Tests, and they don’t have Chris Woakes to tip the balance of the side in his absence. They need a batter in a Stokes-less top seven who can offer enough with the ball alongside a four-man attack. Dawson missed out when Stokes was injured this summer, and Sam Curran’s omission leaves few options for a seam-bowling all-rounder to come in. Jacks’ runs against high-quality international pace attacks likely edged him above Ahmed.
Pope v Bethell 3.0
Ollie Pope captained England’s most recent Test match, but he no longer has an official leadership position in the group. That’s not especially remarkable in itself, having Harry Brook as white-ball captain and Ben Stokes’s stand-in is neater, and probably reflects the vision for the future leadership of the side. It does, however, fit into the wider pattern of creating uncertainty around Pope’s position. Bethell’s presence, and the constant questions without a solid unchallengeable backing of Pope means, if he does start that first Test at No.3, the pressure will be enormous.
Rob Key said after the squad announcement: “At the moment, Ollie Pope is the man in possession [at No 3]. There is a white-ball series [against New Zealand] that Jacob Bethell is playing in, things like that. You never make your decisions too early because things happen.”
Things do happen, but perhaps they should already have. Carrying Bethell around all summer with only one Test cap to show was counter-productive, and if Bethell wasn’t around there likely wouldn’t be questions over Pope’s place after the runs he scored over the summer. It’s the biggest talking point of the squad, and it’s a talking point of England’s own making.
Small squad size leaves little room for the unexpected
England were expected to take a large touring party to Australia, in part to mitigate for injuries to their fragile group of pace bowlers. Instead, they named a 16-player group, with no back-up specialist spinner, Pope as the spare pair of gloves, and Bethell as the sole specialist bat in reserve. They’re two fewer than they were in 2021/22 but on par in number with the squads they named in 2017 and 2010. Nevertheless, with no specialist opener aside from the two incumbents, if Zak Crawley does a McGrath special on the Perth outfield 10 minutes before the toss, Bethell could be opening on the first day of an Ashes tour. There was nothing to stop them taking an enlarged party to cover off the most at-risk scenarios, but it fits that Stokes will keep the party tight, and insular until the situation demands otherwise.
All eyes on the Lions squad announcement
England took the same size touring party to Australia in 2010, and also took a 15-player performance squad to tour Australia at the same time. This time, they’ll do the same, and will play their only warm-up game for the series against the Lions. The players who narrowly missed out on selection for the senior squad, or those who may have been in it had they selected a bigger group, will all likely be included. Rehan Ahmed, Sam Cook, Jordan Cox will almost certainly be in their number, with Sam Curran also set to be in Australia for the Big Bash. All in all, well over 30 of the best of England’s domestic players are set to be in Australia this winter.
Chris Woakes England career gently draws to a close
While Woakes wasn’t in contention for selection for the series due to the shoulder dislocation he suffered in The Oval Test, Rob Key confirmed that he’s no longer in England’s plans “at all”. This time, with his central contract also up at the end of this month, that feels permanent. Woakes’ was the Player of the Series in the 2023 Ashes, having not played at all under Stokes before that. Following that series, he finally occupied the space of England’s attack leader, blocked out for him by James Anderson for the previous decade. He took 62 wickets at 27.25 in 17 Tests under Stokes, earned an overseas recall in Pakistan and started all five Tests of this summer’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Beyond the wickets and memories of him grinning on the Headingley outfield, arm-in-arm with Mark Wood, it’s fitting the final image of him in England colours will likely be batting out a Test with his arm in a sling, the ultimate team man.
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