James Anderson and Stuart Broad ruled out of remainder of England's domestic season
The England Test side’s new-ball opening pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad have been ruled out of the remainder of the domestic campaign for Lancashire and Nottinghamshire respectively with the England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) releasing an official statement regarding the duo’s injury troubles.
Neither are part of England’s limited-overs plans at present with Anderson not picked for the ODI side since the 2015 World Cup while Broad has played only two matches since England’s disastrous campaign in Australia and New Zealand. Their T20 fortunes aren't much better with Broad’s previous appearance in the format coming way back in 2014 while Anderson has also been used sparingly.
The duo were hopeful of helping out their County sides who are in a spot of bother at the moment but will now have to watch from the sidelines with Anderson’s case more about managing the workload considering his recent injury troubles.
"Anderson requires ongoing rehabilitation of his right shoulder and Broad, who last played in the NatWest T20 Finals Day for Nottinghamshire last week, is recovering from an ankle problem," the ECB statement read.
While Broad’s Nottinghamshire has excelled in the T20 format making it to the semifinals stage of the Natwest T20 Blast tournament, their fortunes in the County Championship have been very different as they find themselves languishing at the bottom of the nine-team Division One table.
Lancashire are in a slightly safer territory at sixth spot on the table but they haven't won any of their last eight Championship matches in a run that extends back to May.
While both sides would have liked to have their leading bowlers in their ranks for the final three games of the season, England are taking no chances with a busy summer ahead starting with the tour of Bangladesh in September, for which the ECB recently gave a security clearance after the prevailing terror threat in the country had cast doubts on the tour, before heading to India for a tour which features a five-match Test series.
"Both players have managed their injuries through the summer," the ECB statement continued. "A break from cricket is needed to best prepare the Test opening bowling pair for England's winter campaign that begins this October in Bangladesh."
With 821 Test wickets between them, England do not want to take any chance on the fitness of Anderson and Broad as they attempt to repeat the success of 2012-13 series when they defeated India away in a Test series for the first time in 28 years.