Michael Vaughan, James Anderson, Stuart Broad
Michael Vaughan, James Anderson, Stuart Broad.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has reacted to ECB‘s decision to drop James Anderson and Stuart Broad from the England squad that has been announced for the Test series against West Indies. The two sides play a three-Test match series between March 8-28. West Indies had earlier won the T20I series against the visitors.

Talking To Fox Sports podcast Follow-On, Michael Vaughan said that Andrew Strauss is looking to change the culture within the team and asking them to look beyond the veteran duo. 

James Anderson and Stuart Broad of England. Photo- Skysports
James Anderson and Stuart Broad of England. Photo- Skysports

I think Strauss has looked at this and said ‘well we have to go without them eventually, why not start in the Caribbean. I see an England side without Broad and Anderson maybe going a little bit backwards before they go forwards, but sometimes in sport you’ve got to be willing to do that. It’s sad for them, I do feel sorry for them. On the back of a really poor Ashes series with the bat, the bowlers were okay at times; it was the batting that was atrocious. I completely get their anger” Vaughan said. 

The former England skipper further said that Andrew Strauss is backing England to deliver without their experienced players and in the process send a strong message to the team members asking them to value their performance.

Andrew Strauss
Andrew Strauss. Image-Reuters

“His message to the Caribbean team will be ‘this is your time to try and generate a culture and a method, a togetherness as a group and team without two senior legends’. I always have a huge amount of respect for people [like Strauss] who have to make tough calls; it’s the hardest position to be in where you’re making a call that you just know you’re going to get criticised.”

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England Squad For West Indies Test Series

Joe Root (captain), Jonathan Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Matthew Fisher, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

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Anshuman Roy is an author at Cricketaddictor. He has been working with the organization since January 2022 and he has written more than 6000 articles for the website.