Why England dropped James Anderson and Stuart Broad for West Indies tour following Ashes defeat

England have dropped their all-time leading wicket-takers James Anderson and Stuart Broad for the upcoming tour to West Indies.

England will send a much-changed squad to the Caribbean for next month’s three-match Test series, with Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dom Bess and Sam Billings also axed in the wake of this winter’s woeful Ashes defeat in Australia.

Last week, England dispensed of the services of managing director Ashley Giles, head coach and chief selector Chris Silverwood and assistant coach Graham Thorpe.

A selection panel made up of interim director Sir Andrew Strauss, interim head coach Paul Collingwood and head scout James Taylor met on Tuesday to decide on the squad for the West Indies tour.

Anderson, 39, and Broad, 35, who share close to 1,200 Test wickets, have both been omitted from the touring party but Strauss insisted ‘this does not mean the end’ for the England legends.

Strauss said: ‘In respect of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, I want to emphasise this does not mean the end for them as England players.

‘We feel that it is important to look at some exciting new bowling potential and give some added responsibility to other players who have featured previously.

Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire) Zak Crawley (Kent) Matthew Fisher (Yorkshire) Ben Foakes (Surrey) Dan Lawrence (Essex) Jack Leach (Somerset) Alex Lees (Durham) Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire) Craig Overton (Somerset) Matthew Parkinson (Lancashire) Ollie Pope (Surrey) Ollie Robinson (Sussex) Ben Stokes (Durham) Chris Woakes (Warwickshire) Mark Wood (Durham)

‘No one doubts the quality and experience that James and Stuart bring to the England set-up.

‘It will be up to the new managing director and permanent