In an expected move, England have rested star players returning from the IPL to hand opportunities to younger players for the series against New Zealand. Head coach Chris Silverwood confirmed that the decision was taken with an eye on the Ashes series scheduled for this year's end down under.
Silverwood said that England are reluctant to face situations in Australia where they will have to bring in youngsters to debut and instead they have found a way to groom new players through ‘different experiences’ before the marquee rivalry begins.
"It's one thing we've talked about, to try and get to the point where we're not debuting anybody in Australia. It's been a plan now for a while and we have given different people different experiences, debuted people, got more experience into people, so we're banking that all the way to the Ashes, really,” Silverwood said.
England have given maiden call ups to Ollie Robinson and James Bracey for the Tests against the Blackcaps and the message from the Silverwood-led team management is simple: “Take your opportunity..”
The Test series against New Zealand is scheduled to take off from June 02 at Lord’s.