Skipper Joe Root has named his playing 11 for Thursday's opening match.
England and Australia are set to lock horns for their very first Test-match on Thursday, August 1.
Skipper Joe Root has named his playing 11 for Thursday's opening Ashes test against Australia and there are a few familiar faces missing from that English side.
Speedster Jofra Archer is the most eye-catching name missing from the England side, who received his maiden call-up to the England test squad for the Ashes series.
Fellow pacer James Anderson passed a late fitness test for the new ICC Cricket World Cup champions and has been named in the squad ahead of Archer.
James Anderson was ruled out of England's four-day Test against Ireland at Lord's due to a right calf injury. The opening bowler had failed to recover from the injury sustained when playing for his county Lancashire against Durham on July 2.
The Lancashire swing bowler, with 575 scalps, trails only the spin trio of Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800 wickets), Australia's Shane Warne (708) and India's Anil Kumble (619) in the all-time list of Test wicket-takers.
This will be the first time England and Australia will be facing each other after their World Cup 2019 semi-final clash, in which England secured a very comfortable win to reach the final against the Kiwis.
Team: Rory Burns, Jason Roy, Joe Root (c), Joe Denly, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
Australia coach Justin Langer also confirmed James Pattinson and Usman Khawaja are certain starters for the opening Ashes test in Birmingham.
Khawaja passed a fitness test on Monday after recovering from a hamstring injury and Langer confirmed the left-hander will bat at number three, while fast bowler Pattinson is set to feature in his first test match since Feb. 2016."Usman Khawaja will definitely be in," Langer told reporters. "He's fit, ready to go, he's playing well. He's a seasoned pro for us, he averages 40-odd in Test cricket, his hammy (hamstring) is good, he's running well, he's passed all the fitness tests so he's ready to go. He'll bat number three."
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