'Lord’s Has Offered More for the...': Stokes Sheds Light on Moeen Ali’s Exclusion From Lord's Test
Moeen Ali has been excluded from the Lord's Test [AP Photos]
Ahead of the second Ashes Test scheduled to commence at Lord's on June 28, England Test captain Ben Stokes has explained the rationale behind the decision to exclude Moeen Ali and instead include Joshua Tongue in the playing XI.
During his return to Test cricket last week, Moeen experienced a recurrence of a previous finger injury related to spinning. Despite recovering well and participating in training on Monday, England opted for an all-seam attack due to the presence of a green pitch. Josh Tongue, who has played only Test in his career so far, has been chosen to replace Moeen in the team, while Mark Wood, who has a minor elbow issue, has been left out.
Captain Stokes initially considered including the pace of Wood in the lineup to bring a new dynamic to the bowling attack. However, Wood, who last played Test cricket in December, couldn't guarantee his fitness and performance over five days and is now aiming to join the team for the third Test at Headingley.
"We wanted to play Mark Wood. We felt that he could definitely start the game but with conversations, we felt the extra week with build-up and getting his loads up would give him a better chance and an opportunity to play a full part from Leeds onwards," Ben Stokes said on the eve of the second Ashes Test.
"And we brought Tonguey into the team as a like-for-like with Woody. We turned up here at Lord's and saw there was quite a lot of grass on the wicket, a bit of green. Traditionally, Lord's has offered more for the seamers and with how Mo's finger was last weekend, we just thought we would get more out of our fourth bowler being Josh Tongue this week," added Stokes.
As the second Ashes Test approaches, England will be looking to build on their performance in the previous match and make the necessary adjustments to outplay the visiting Australian team at the Home of Cricket.
 "Vaibhav Tripathi")
