Lord’s Test: Bracey set to make debut for England against Kiwis

ANI London The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday confirmed that wicketkeeper-batsman James Bracey will be making his debut for the side in ...

ANI LondonThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Tuesday confirmed that wicketkeeper-batsman James Bracey will be making his debut for the side in the first Test against New Zealand, beginning Wednesday at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.“Cap number 698. Congratulations @bobbybracey25,” official handle of England Cricket tweeted. Earlier on Tuesday, it was confirmed that pacer Stuart Broad will be the side’s vice-captain for the two-match Test series against New Zealand, beginning Wednesday.“Our vice-captain for #ENGvNZ. @StuartBroad8,” official handle of England Cricket tweeted.Last week, England men’s cricket team coach Chris Silverwood had called up Kent’s wicketkeeper-batsman Sam Billings and Nottinghamshire’s top-order batsman Haseeb Hameed for the upcoming Test series against New Zealand.The call-ups came as England wicketkeeper Ben Foakes was ruled out of the upcoming Test series against New Zealand after tearing his left hamstring.Foakes, who was selected in the England men’s squad earlier this month, was set to play his first Test in home conditions next month at Lord’s, but he sustained the injury slipping in the dressing room after Surrey’s County Championship fixture against Middlesex at the Kia Oval.“He will now be assessed and work closely on his rehabilitation with the Surrey medical team and is expected to be out of action for at least three months,” the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in an official statement.Billings, an established member of England’s white-ball squads, is uncapped as a Test player. On the other hand, Hameed, who has been in impressive form during the 2021 county season, has scored 474 runs at an average of 52.66. He last played Test cricket in November 2016. His three Test caps came against India during England’s winter tour of 2016.England and New Zealand will be locking horns in two Tests. The second Test at Edgbaston will be the first pilot event within the second phase of the government’s world-leading Events Research Programme and have crowds coming in for the June 10 to 14 encounter.Meanwhile, England Test skipper Joe Root confirmed that his team along with New Zealand will take a “moment of unity” ahead of the opening Test on Wednesday.The “moment of unity” ahead of the first Test against New Zealand is likely to be similar to the one that preceded the first round of County Championship games in April, reported ESPNcricinfo. During the moment of unity, all players, support staff and match officials stood in silence on the boundary edge for two minutes. Last year, after the death of George Floyd, both England and West Indies squads took a knee to show solidarity towards the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.“We will be taking a moment of unity at the start of the game. New Zealand will also be doing that. They are happy to work alongside us and support us in that. We know at the start of last summer there were some hard truths throughout sport and society. We have spent a lot of time talking about how we can better our game and how we can educate ourselves more. We have worked with the PCA and the ECB in trying to find ways of doing that and have done some workshops recently to try and make ourselves a bit more comfortable dealing with those issues,” ESPNCricinfo quoted Root as saying.