England\u2019s first-choice Ashes bowling attack is probably\u2026<\/p>\n
- \n
- Gus Atkinson<\/li>\n
- Someone<\/li>\n
- Someone else<\/li>\n
- Ben Stokes<\/li>\n
- Someone else<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It\u2019s still early days, but Atkinson\u2019s 63 wickets at 22.01 earn him a place. Having now exited an aeon of extraordinary predictability when it came to opening bowlers, the guy kicking things off at the other end is however weirdly hard to identify.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Atkinson-hat-trick-appeal-1024x683.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nIn the last two years, England have asked 14 players to open the bowling. Atkinson has done it 23 times and Chris Woakes has done it 27 times.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Chris-Woakes-1-1024x683.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s both unclear and moot<\/a> whether Woakes was ever even pencilled-in for the shiny new Kookaburra. It kind of feels like was given an opportunity that wasn\u2019t entirely being grasped even before this summer\u2019s unforgiving slog<\/a> and the displaced shoulder<\/a> that unceremoniously brought it to a halt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So who else?<\/p>\n
The next busiest England opening bowler in that timespan is actually Anderson with eight innings and after him it\u2019s Brydon Carse with five.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Carse-1024x683.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nCarse looked a really useful older ball bowler<\/a> when he first came into the side and after those five innings, he still looks like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
> Cook with gas: England\u2019s parallel quick and not-quite-so quick bowling queues<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
Which brings us to, um, Joe Root, who\u2019s opened the bowling four times in the last two years. This is as often as Mark Wood \u2013 who, like Carse, seems to favour the older ball<\/a> \u2013 and more often than Matt Potts, Sam Cook, Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson (who\u2019s now so far from the conversation that it took us a minute to remember whether he was an Ollie or an Olly).<\/p>\n
That most likely leaves us with the other fella who\u2019s taken the new ball as often as Root and Wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Jofra-Archer-1024x684.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nNow that he\u2019s finally gone past Ian Peebles<\/a> on the list of Test wicket-takers, Jofra Archer probably makes as much sense as anyone. Only as much as we all have fantasies of him and Wood taking it in turns to one-up each other on the speed gun, we\u2019d be amazed if the turn-taking weren\u2019t organised on a match by match basis. England have two legitimately fast bowlers and neither\u2019s getting through five Test matches. They\u2019ll tag in and out with each other, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
> Mark\u2019s wood: Talking joinery and timber with England\u2019s fastest bowler<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
When Archer plays, Carse can revert to his older ball role. But then who would open the bowling in the Wood matches? We genuinely don\u2019t know. Last time he bowled in Australia, Wood took 6-37 and his first wicket came in the 15th over. That\u2019s his job. Don\u2019t change anything there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Shoaib-Bashir-1024x683.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nAnd finally, what about the spinner? If there is one \u2013 and Stokes does like having one \u2013 then it can surely only be Shoaib Bashir. His record of 68 Test wickets at 39.00 is both uninspiring and a little bit better than you actually thought it was, which definitely says something about something \u2013 although Lord\u2019s knows what specifically. <\/p>\n
Bashir was always picked with the Ashes in mind and now it\u2019s the Ashes. It would be super-weird to drop him for someone else.<\/p>\n
The upshot of all this is that England\u2019s first choice Ashes bowling attack shapes up as one they\u2019d ironically never actually pick, even if everyone were fully fit (which obviously they won\u2019t be).\u00a0<\/p>\n
- \n
- Gus Atkinson<\/li>\n
- Jofra Archer<\/li>\n
- Mark Wood<\/li>\n
- Ben Stokes<\/li>\n
- Shoaib Bashir\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The King Cricket email is something you DEFINITELY want to sign up for<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n