England have named an unchanged team for the third Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston, with captain Ben Stokes calling it “an easy decision to stick with the same eleven.”
With a settled batting order and an in-form bowling attack, Stokes has opted to keep the same team for a consecutive match rather than rotating the quick bowlers.
“I think that will come naturally,” Stokes said of the temptation to rest one of Gus Atkinson, Chris Woakes or Mark Wood.
“We've got six Test matches [this summer], even though we've got a decent break, but there's the Hundred to be played in between that. So, you know, fast bowling is very hard.
“I think naturally we may see, you know, a change in the bowling line-up but that's not required yet."
It means that the uncapped Dillon Pennington continues to wait for a debut, with hopes for the Nottinghamshire seamer still sky-high.
“The first thing that struck me was how big he was,” Stokes said of Pennington. “I walked past him in the changing room and bumped into him and went to look flat and I had to look up another foot. He's massive.
“Ben Duckett fed back he’s bowled some spells this year at Test level, there’s no doubt if an opportunity comes then he’ll be ready to go.”
Bazball 2.0 has expressed a desire to be more ruthless, although Stokes has since expressed his dislike of the term, but England are pushing for a third clean sweep series win under Stokes after three-nil wins over New Zealand and Pakistan in 2022.
He said: “Two-nil up, very good all round team performances so far. It was a pretty easy decision to stick with the same XI and then hopefully we wrap it up three-nil.
“Ruthless is always a word that I think is just based on outcome, but yeah we want to win three-nil.”
The West Indies have been forced into one change, with Gudakesh Motie replacing Kevin Sinclair who suffered a fracture after taking a blow from Mark Wood. Akeem Jordan, uncapped at Test level, has also been added to the squad as a precaution with Shamar Joseph currently suffering with flu.
“It's all about fighting,” West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said.
“I think once we continue to create that kind of attitude around this Test team, there will be growth and that's what we're after."
