Wood, Archer, Atkinson, Carse and Tongue lead attack
Will Jacks gets nod over Rehan Ahmed as reserve spinner
Already the quickest scoring team in Test cricket, England will hit Australia with their fastest bowling attack in a generation – perhaps all time – after announcing their 16-man squad for the Ashes this winter.
A late curveball from Rob Key’s panel is the inclusion of Surrey’s Will Jacks, offering an attacking option with the bat and serving as the reserve spinner to Shoaib Bashir. Otherwise the squad is largely as expected, including confirmation that Harry Brook, not Ollie Pope, will be vice‑captain to Ben Stokes when the first Test begins in Perth on 21 November.
Pope’s untethering from that leadership role raises the possibility of Jacob Bethell breaking into a batting lineup that has played with freedom over the past three and a half years and rattled along at 4.5 runs per over. A run quicker than Australia during this period, albeit yet to win a major five-Test series, that figure is also a historical outlier among all nations.
