“We are lucky to have two England greats at Broad and Anderson, so we have a lot of experience,” says Silverwood, with England’s top two all-time wicket takers lined up to be retired after nine wicket losses at the Gabba
Stuart Broad and James Anderson missed the defeat of nine England wickets in Brisbane
James Anderson and Stuart Broad are “fit and ready to go” for the second Test from the Ashes in Adelaide, says England head coach Chris Silverwood.
Fast pitchers Anderson and Broad, England’s two best all-time wicket takers, were sidelined for the nine-wicket loss to Australia in Test 1 in Brisbane.
But both are now in line to be called up to the starting eleven in the next day / night contest, which will begin on Thursday, after four days of fine-tuning the networks.
“We are lucky to have two England greats at Broad and Anderson so we have a lot of experience,” Silverwood said.
“Jimmy will be fit and ready for the second test, as will Stuart. Yes, they are available. Certainly from an experience point of view, we have a lot of experience with bowlers so I’m happy with that.”
Broad, 35, who has been working to recover from a calf injury sustained in August, said in his Mail on sunday In the column he was not prepared to “unleash a stench”, despite feeling that he could have had a “positive influence” on the Gabba.
Last summer, Broad said Sky sports he sought assurances about his future after the first test of the summer in England left him “frustrated, angry and devastated”.
“Stuart has been great, to be honest, obviously he was disappointed not to play, but he understood that this is a long series,” added Silverwood.
“Everybody will put their hands up to do the hard work and he’s ready to do it now. We had good conversations with Stuart before any decisions were made and he was 100 percent in agreement.”
“I haven’t told anyone they are playing yet. We will have some body aches from this test and we will make decisions from there.”
England have now lost 10 of their last 11 events in Australia and won just once in their home summer, but Silverwood still believes they have a team capable of mounting an Ashes comeback.
“It’s part of my role to take criticism because the ball stops with me, I have no problem with that,” he said.
“We have a good group of players here who are capable of winning the Ashes series. We have players here who can match the Australians.
“We know it’s going to be tough here, we just saw that, so the focus should be on giving them confidence that they can win the series.”
