Jake Ball will make his Test debut for England against Pakistan at Lord’s on Thursday after Alastair Cook and Trevor Bayliss were overruled on the fitness of Jimmy Anderson – the world’s No1 Test bowler.
The Guardian understands in last week’s selection meeting both the captain and coach pushed for their record wicket-taker to be part of the squad for the series opener, with the player himself, who has since bowled on both practice days, confident he could perform following the detection of a slight stress fracture to his right shoulder blade a month ago.
Bayliss, one of the four selectors, is known to back senior players on knowledge of their own capabilities but the rest of the panel – James Whitaker, Angus Fraser and Mick Newell – stood firm on their decision to give the 33-year-old Anderson an extra week of recovery before the second Test at his home ground, Old Trafford, next week.
Cook, speaking after England trained on Wednesday, talked up the wicket-taking abilities of the uncapped Ball – the Nottinghamshire right-armer will open the bowling with Stuart Broad – but made a point of stating the selectors, not he, were behind the call.
“When it first happened the scan results were slightly worrying but he has recovered quite quickly from it. You are going to have to ask the selectors their reasons. [Anderson] was fairly confident but chatting to him he does understand the situation,” Cook said.
“There is always a temptation to take that gamble, with 454 Test wickets and the skill he has got. They talked about it a lot [in the selection meeting] and made their decision. They’re concerned that if he has one of those stints at Lord’s – the sun’s out and it’s a flat wicket – he could be bowling 30-odd overs in an innings and we’re not quite sure how his shoulder will stand up to that. That’s the reason the selectors gave me.”
Asked if the medical team give naturally conservative information to the selectors because of the liability falling back on them, Cook replied: “Certainly, they do. They are asked their opinion and I imagine they will err on the safety side; if they make the other call, and it blows up and there are repercussions. When you are responsible for making decisions on players’ welfare it must be really tough.”
Anderson’s absence was welcomed by Pakistan’s captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, whose side can go top of the Test rankings with a 3-0 or 4-0 away series win.
Misbah said: “It’s obviously an advantage if one of the main bowlers of the opposition is missing. But at the same time you know that all their bowlers are really good in these sort of conditions and we have to be up to the mark and ready for the challenge.
“We have to concentrate on what our strengths are and forget about the other things – who’s playing, who’s not playing – we have to give every bowler respect.”
