Follow UsBrydon Carse has just played five Tests in his entire career, and all of them have come away from home. In his first Test at home against a strong Indian side, in Headingley, the 29-year-old has the added pressure of taking the new ball.
While he certainly might have some nerves, his captain Ben Stokes believes that Carse has got all the skillset to ace the new ball. Carse is no stranger to taking the new ball, however, with seven powerplay wickets in ODIs.
"I know it's a different format and different colour ball, but Brydon looked very threatening with the Kookaburra in the white-ball series leading up to this," Stokes said. "The skills Tonguey has, I think it suits him better in the role he's got in this team, being first change. But Brydon looks all the part of a new-ball bowler."
Another bone of contention that possibly surrounded the English camp was the form of their vice-captain, Ollie Pope. However, all of those qualms were quashed when the right-hander smashed a 171 against Zimbabwe, which all but ruled out the possibility of RCB all-rounder Jacob Bethell replacing him.
"The 'big selection' idea didn't come from us. It would be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was a 170 [171], and that's pretty much all I need to say on that,” Stokes said.
"In this day and age it's very tough to not see all that kind of speculation and stuff around it just because of how easily accessible things are. You don't even have to go and hunt for it to see it these days," Stokes said of Pope. "But I think scoring 170 in his last Test match has sort of shown how well he's handled that extra scrutiny."
A lot of eyeballs will be on Chris Woakes, who has a stellar home record with 137 of his 181 wickets coming in England, where he averages just 21.6. Stokes called him ‘relentless’, while adding that he will be the leader of the bowling unit.
"I think him being the leader of the attack, he's going to thrive off that responsibility and yeah he's a quality cricketer... you know the relentlessness that he has with the ball, whether that be new ball or old ball, and then having his ability with the bat down at number eight obviously, that's a plus.
"I think like experience is experience.... Obviously it's spoken about a lot, but I see at the end of the day, whether you've played 100 games or five games, it's the skills that are the most important, valuable thing when you come out to play any form of cricket. Brydon's [Carse] had an unbelievable start to his international career in all formats to be honest and he's been great for this Test team when he's got the shirt, so I don't look into that too much."