England kick off their massive home Test summer with a four-day clash against Zimbabwe, who have surprisingly been playing a lot of red-ball cricket this year. Already, this will be Zimbabwe's fifth Test in 2025 and first in England in 2022 years, and the new crop gets its first taste of Bazball at Trent Bridge starting Thursday, May 22. For England, on the other hand, it will be a dress rehearsal for the huge six months in whites, which comprises five Tests against India at home, followed by the away Ashes series.
England will have a slightly different look to their bowling attack with Sam Cook making his Test debut and Josh Tongue returning to the fold after a couple of years. With Chris Woakes and Brydon Varse building up their workload, coming off injuries, for the India series, Gus Atkinson, who had a breakout summer last year, suddenly finds himself leading the attack while Ben Stokes hopes to bowl a bit after a successful recovery from his second hamstring injury in six months.
Zimbabwe have won just one out of four Tests they have played this year, but in Brian Bennett, Ben Curran, Sean Williams and Blessing Muzarabani in the bowling side of things, the visitors have a few players in form, who could do some damage. England have a batting line-up too strong against Zimbabwe's bowlers and hence, the visiting batters will have to play out of their skins to be able to score 250-300 at least or even more, to stay in the contest, especially with someone like Sikandar Raza returning to the fold.
My Dream11 team for ENG vs ZIM one-off Test
Brian Bennett, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook (c), Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Joe Root, Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Gus Atkinson (vc), Shoaib Bashir, Blessing Muzarabani
Playing XIs
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Gus Atkinson, Samuel James Cook, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
Zimbabwe (probable): Ben Curran, Brian Bennett, Nick Welch, Sean Williams, Craig Ervine(c), Sikandar Raza, Wessly Madhevere, Tafadzwa Tsiga(w), Wellington Masakadza, Richard Ngarava, Blessing Muzarabani
