'Absolute nightmare': Broad concedes selection not certain

Stuart Broad could miss selection in a home Test for the first time in eight years as England selectors ponder their best pace attack for the resumption of Test cricket this week.

Broad, who is closing in on 500 Test wickets, concedes selection 'is out of my control' going into the first Test against the West Indies as England consider unleashing speedsters Jofra Archer and Mark Wood in the same XI for the first time.

After a long absence of Test cricket due to the COVID-19 pandemic, England have five fast bowlers in their 13-man squad for the first Test, with Jimmy Anderson and Chris Woakes joining Broad, Archer and Wood.

While Broad has been overlooked on away tours to the Windies and Sri Lanka in the past two years, he's played 51 consecutive Tests at home since he was rested for a rain-affected dead rubber in 2012.

Since the start of the 2009 northern summer, he's missed just three of England's 74 home Tests, rested on all three occasions.

He concedes having five top-quality seam bowlers fit and healthy at the start of a series – one of the few upsides of the COVID-19 lockdown – is unusual.

"One thing that is out of my control this week is selection," he wrote in The Daily Mail.

"My record over the past 12 months or so has been pretty good, I have not missed a home Test for eight years and I wouldn't want to be rested for the first match of the summer.

"Let's face it, I've rested for the past 12 weeks. Equally, I don't think I've ever gone into a Test summer with every bowler in the country fit."

Broad says Archer, who missed most of the recent tour of South Africa due to an elbow injury, is "100 per cent" in England’s best side after his eye-catching debut series against Australia 12 months ago.

And with Anderson fit again after suffering a rib injury in South Africa, and Wood coming off a career-best nine-wicket haul in the final Test against the Proteas, Broad concedes there's no obvious way for the selectors to go.

"The competition for places is extraordinary," he wrote.

"There is myself and Jimmy Anderson to consider — you would think that Jofra Archer is in the best team 100 per cent — then you have to remind yourself that Mark Wood bowled unbelievably in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth earlier this year, and that Chris Woakes is a brilliant cricketer.

"It's an absolute nightmare."

Another option for England would be to overlook spinner Dom Bess and pick four frontline quicks to go with pace-bowling allrounder (and new captain) Ben Stokes, as they did for the fourth Test against the Proteas in Johannesburg six months ago.

Whichever fast bowlers do miss out on the first Test this week would be expected to get a chance at some point during the summer, with England to play six Tests in seven weeks – three against the Windies and three against Pakistan – as part of a truncated Test summer.

The first Test starts on Wednesday in Southampton.

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

West Indies Squad: Jason Holder (c), Jermaine Blackwood, Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shamarh Brooks, John Campbell, Roston Chase, Rahkeem Cornwall, Shane Dowrich (wk), Shannon Gabriel, Chemar Holder, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Raymon Reifer, Kemar Roach.