Joe Root has confirmed that Mark Stoneman will make his England debut in the first Test against the West Indies.
Stoneman’s inclusion, at the expense of Keaton Jennings, is the only change to the side that beat South Africa at Old Trafford earlier in the month as they begin the three-match series against the Windies with the first day-night Test hosted in England, at Edgbaston.
It means that the fit-again Chris Woakes misses the opportunity to make his return on his home ground while young leg-spinner Mason Crane must also wait for his first experience of Test cricket.
“Chris Woakes and Mason Crane are the two guys who are going to miss out,” Root said. “I think it is a great opportunity for the rest of the guys to experience a pink-ball Test match for the first time and I’m really excited to get the week going.”
“[Woakes] will definitely have wanted to play here but just with the lack of game time he’s had, we felt that just another week of loading up on overs and making sure he was absolutely ready after coming back from quite a serious injury was really important,” he added.
“That’s where we’re at, at the minute and I think Toby [Roland-Jones] deserves his opportunity here.” Stoneman will be Alastair Cook’s 12th opening partner since Andrew Strauss retired and Root challenged the Surrey left-hander to make the spot his own.
“He’s obviously got a huge amount of runs under his belt this year, in particular, and in previous seasons as well,” he added. “He’s got a well-rounded game, he’s a bit more experienced having played a lot of county cricket and I’m excited to see him go and hopefully take his opportunity.”
“Ideally you want some to come in and set the world alight and their career moves forward from there but I’d like to think he’ll get a very good opportunity and some good game time with England. Of course you want [the top order] to be settled. You never want to go into a series with guys out of form or under pressure but I think that is one of the challenges of Test cricket.”
“And, as a side, generally, we’ve responded quite well to that in the past and this is just a great opportunity for Mark to go out and show everyone how good a player he is.”
Root warned against underestimating a West Indies side looking to record their first Test series win in England since 1988 and believes the pink ball will provide both sides with “different challenges” at Edgbaston.
“I think there are different challenges that [the pink ball] brings and at different times of the day than you’d normally expect in Test cricket,” he said, “But, ultimately, it is still the same fundamentals of cricket and you’ve just got to make sure that when those difficult periods crop up that we respond well and quickly.”
“I think it’s great that we’re giving [day-night Test cricket] the opportunity to work here, I’m sure it’ll be a very exciting spectacle. It’ll be interesting to see how this week pans out.”