Ashes 2023: Amid rising injury concerns, Australia call up uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman

The cricket fanatics will witness one of the most heated rivalries from June 16, 2023, as England and Australia will take on each other in the Ashes 2023 series. However, ahead of that, the Australian team will face the number one team in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings, India, in the final of the World Test Championship. 

The Australian team, now ahead of the Ashes 2023 series, has roped in an uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman as a backup for Josh Inglis. Queensland’s Jimmy Peirson will join the team squad in place of Inglis, who will leave the team squad after the first Test owing to the birth of his first child. However, he will join the team later on during the series. 

Jimmy Peirson called In as backup for Josh Inglis 

Jimmy Peirson till now has played 65 first-class matches and has made 3000 runs at an average of 34.75. His career included six centuries, and his performance with the bat has been very remarkable with the bat. Since the beginning of the 2020-21 summer, his average is 42.56, and all his centuries have come through that period. However, Alex Carey will be the team’s first-choice wicketkeeper. 

The England team will hope to regain dominance in the Ashes. The last time the English team won the series was in 2015. Australia has been dominant in the preceding three editions of the Ashes and has also defeated England at home in 2019. 

READ: Ashes 2023: The last of David Warner in Test cricket? Australia coach drops massive update

Ahead of the series, the mind games have also started and the recent case is of the verbal battle between Australia pacer Mitchell Starc and England fast bowler Stuart Broad.

Starc-Broad share verbal banter ahead of Ashes 2023 series 

Broad in an interview with the 'Daily Mail' had said that he doesn't consider the 2021-22 series as a real "Ashes" as it was badly affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Nothing was harsher than the last Ashes series. But in my mind, I don't class that as a real Ashes. The definition of Ashes cricket is elite sport with lots of passion and players at the top of their game," Stuart Broad said. 

"Nothing about that series was high-level performance because of the Covid restrictions. The training facilities, the travel, not being able to socialise. I've written it off as a void series," Stuart Broad added. 

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc hit back at Broad and said that he enjoyed the 2021-22 Ashes series and the facilities that the England team got were not received by any other teams.

"The funniest thing out of that was they called it quarantine on the Gold Coast. I did seven of them. That was the easiest by a country mile. The Poms had the pool, the gym, they were in a resort on the Gold Coast, they trained at Metricon (now Heritage Bank Stadium), weren’t confined to their rooms and had their families there," Mitchell Starc said to Australian newspaper 'The Sydney Morning Herald'. 

"Was that really quarantine? They were still allowed to play golf on tour. Is that an excuse for 4-0? Dunno. It was a pretty good series to be a part of," Starc added.