Either James Anderson or Stuart Broad will have to be dropped for England’s scheduled 2021 tour of India, according to former spinner Monty Panesar.
Panesar said that since England prefer to play an all-rounder in those conditions and with Chris Woakes in the kind of form that he is in right now, it will be difficult to drop him for Ben Stokes whenever the England vice captain returns.
“England likes to play all-rounder in that position and I can see both Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes playing. Probably, it will be James Anderson or Stuart Broad who might be dropped considering the conditions,” he said on SportsTiger’s show Cricket Talks.
Panesar also said that Adil Rashid should be selected ahead of Dom Bess for the tour. “The English team might need a specialist spinner. Adil Rashid is a good player. If he was playing in this series instead of Dom Bess, England would have won the series against Pakistan 2-0.”
England were originally scheduled to tour India in September and October 2020 to play the ODI and T20I matches. However, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said earlier in the month that it will now host an “all format tour” in early 2021.
“BCCI and ECB are in consultation with a view to confirming the 2021 schedules for an all-formats England men’s tour to India to run from late January to late March and for India’s Test tour to England due in the summer of 2021,” the BCCI release stated.
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