England are facing a bowling crisis at the dawn of the Test campaign, with Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson ruled out of the match against Ireland at Lord’s this week and Mark Wood also a doubt. Ben Stokes’s ability to drag his injured knee through a few overs is also sufficiently uncertain that all Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, would say on the subject was that “I think he’ll bowl at some stage throughout the summer”.
Wood bowled during the team’s first training session at Lord’s on Monday and though England will not be inclined to take any risks with the first Ashes Test a fortnight away he could yet play on Thursday. “He looks like he is going all right. We’ll have to monitor,” McCullum said.
He also suggested the returning Jonny Bairstow may move up the order to further minimise Stokes’s workload, saying the wicketkeeper would bat “at six or seven depending on which way we go with the skip”.
Anderson and Robinson are expected to be fit for the start of the Ashes, but at present the only bowlers over whom England have no injury concerns are Stuart Broad, Matt Potts, Chris Woakes and Josh Tongue, whose chances of making a debut continue to improve.
“He’s obviously a bit of a rough diamond,” McCullum said of the 25‑year‑old. “We think he’s got something really exciting. Whether he plays in this Test or throughout the summer I’m not sure, but he is another one who looks like he has an immense amount of talent.”
McCullum is convinced England have the resources to cope with a hectic schedule, six Tests in the space of eight weeks. “When I took over this job people said there was a lack of talent and depth within English cricket – I totally disagree with that,” he said.
“There’s an immense amount of talent and quite a bit of depth as well, which will be needed throughout the summer. This [Ireland Test] might be one of those occasions. Whoever gets the opportunity, I’ll be very confident they’ll do a job.”
As a player McCullum was involved in 16 Tests against Australia and won once, but he feels England are much better than his New Zealand team. “You always felt like you were scrapping for something rather than being able to go toe-to-toe with them,” he said. “The ability to go toe-to-toe with a good side is where the magic happens. We’ve got the quality in our team, and they’ve got the quality in their team, to [have] a heavyweight contest so I’m excited about that.”
Ireland are the most pressing concern, but the Ashes is already on the players’ minds. “Of course people are talking about it,” McCullum said. “It’s what you want to play the game for. You want to be tested against the best with the most amount of people watching and the biggest, brightest lights and see where you’re at.”
Though he described the fixture as “a tremendous honour for us” perhaps McCullum would agree with the recent assessment of Cricket Ireland’s high performance director, Richard Holdsworth, that this Test is “a special occasion, but not a pinnacle event”. Both sides have half an eye on future challenges, with Ireland playing a series of ODI World Cup qualifiers next month, but Gary Wilson, their head coach, insisted his side were focused on victory.
“There’s always a chance,” he said. “England are obviously a very good side but we both have bats, we both have balls, it’s a game of cricket. I’ll be saying to the players to go out there and focus on trying to get a result that will put us up in lights and I think they’ve got a good chance.
“There’s no doubt we have to play our best cricket and England have to be slightly off, but we’re here to compete and to try to win.”
