England cricket chiefs say they are determined to wring the maximum out of leading wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

The pacemen were controversially left out of the squad for the recent Test series in the Caribbean, which England lost 1-0, hot on the heels of a humiliating 4-0 Ashes defeat in Australia.

But the bowlers, with a combined age of 74, were on Wednesday named in a 13-man squad for the first two Tests of the three-match series against New Zealand, which starts at Lord’s on 2 June.

New captain Ben Stokes has already indicated that he wants Anderson and Broad – who have taken nearly 1,200 Test wickets between them – in his team.

New England managing director Rob Key signalled a clear break with the rest-and-rotation policy of the previous regime, which was put in place partly as a result of coronavirus restrictions.

“I don’t think their workload will be managed actually,” Key said. “I think we try to get the most out of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, the most out of them that we possibly can.”

The former England batsman, appointed as part of a management shake-up following the Ashes debacle, added: “I’d rather have them in the side, trying to win games of cricket for England than sort of prolonging their careers for a long time where they can’t impact as much as possible.

“I think we’ll try to make the most of them while we’ve still got them.”

England squad: Ben Stokes (Durham, c), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Foakes (Surrey, wkt), Jack Leach (Somerset), Alex Lees (Durham), Craig Overton (Somerset), Matthew Potts (Durham), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Joe Root (Yorkshire).

© Agence France-Presse